arrogancy and presumption assuming to themselues as if they were able for al thinges al their Geese be Swannes not an Asse amongst them but is vvorthy to stand with the Kings Horses not one of them I warrant you but is sufficient to be a Counsellour to a Prince He liuely describeth himselfe they are the only high spirited men of great conceit of deepe reach of noble resolution of most special and secret intelligence of braue discourse that can tel great tales of Bombomachides Clunnistaridi sarchides the great Gurgustionian Emperor euen like Narcissus so farre in loue with themselues that they are drownd in their owne pride But we know them wel enough vve see their foolery and laugh at it vvhen they come to trial they are for the most part but empty barrels al this great noise proueth in a manner nothing but meere winde Only vve are sorry for that as the Heretikes of old by strange deuised words and names stupefied and amazed simple and ignorant people and by that meanes gathered to themselues great admiration drew many to their heresies so these seducers vvith bold faces and bigge lookes and brauadoes of prating and cogging doe make silly soules vnstable fooles but specially women to admire them and grow in loue with them so to be carried by them blind-folded to their owne destruction But here we are much to obserue that by lâ—w courses only M. Bishop defended his Majesties title to the crowne by diuinity he could say nothing for his Master Bellarmine had taught him that it is but De jure humano quod hunc aut illum babeamus Regem It is but by the law of man that we haue this or that man to be our King and therefore he argueth because the law of God is to be preferred before the law of man he that by the law of man is to be King vnlesse he wil be a maintainer of Popish religion a vassal and slaue to the Pope by the law of God he must be no King This is M. Bishops diuinity and by this diuinity his Majesty must haue beene ordered if for our judgement God had suffered him to fal into their handes As touching his diuinity otherwise vvhich he saith hath beene the best part of his study more then thrise seauen yeares how wel he hath profited therein we shal see by examining the particulars of this booke WILLIAM BISHOP IF any firme or sound proofe may be drawne from examples I say then that his Majesty may better collect my fidelity by the example of more then two hundred Priests that haue alwaies carried themselues faithful towards his Highnesse then by the faults of two that did otherwise but it is M. Abbots custome to reason so loosly and out of one or two particulars to conclude an vniuersal which in moral matters argueth yet farre greater spite and malice for vvho can abide to heare that for one or two men offending al men of the same profession should be condemned rather then for the fidelity of hundreds to thinke wel of al the rest Whether I gaue any occasion of suspition by those my vvordes vpon which he so often warbleth hath beene already touched and shal be more hereafter Those idle foolish and false vvordes of his that follow vvhere he affirmeth vvithout any shadow of proofe that there is not one Seminary Priest that doth not thinke himselfe able to be a Counsellour to a King are so farre from al truth and honesty as al they can best witnesse that know them that I need not stand about the disproofe of them Only I note that vvhiles he vvil needes out of his accustomed ciuility tearme vs Asses he by craft calleth himselfe and his fellow Ministers the Kinges Horses for vvith vvhom should Priests be compared but vvith men of the like profession saying then that there is not an Asse among the Priests as he speaketh but is worthy to stand with the Kinges Horses he must in due proportion be vnderstood to signifie thereby that there is not a Priest so simple but taketh himselfe worthy to stand cheeke by jole vvith the jollier sort of Ministers vvhom by Peryphrasis he describes and discries to be the Kings Horses and that not without some shew of reason for they are ready to be ridden whether his Majesty pleaseth â—nd seeme to make the temporal Princes proceedings their north-pole by which they direct the whole course of their liues and learning But are they not made also trow you like to silly Asses pressed to carry such vvaighty burthens imposed vpon their benefices as it shal please their good Patrons to lay and loade vpon them and yet neuerthelesse they wil not sticke to sweare very formally that they come frankly and freely to them Albeit they be so quiet and commodious cattle to their good Patrons and Benefactors neuerthelesse towardes others specially towardes vs Catholikes many of them be not vnlike those horses described by S. Iohn Apocal. 9. v. 17. 18. And the heades of the Horses were as it were the heades of Lions and from their mouthes proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone so fierce and fiery they be against poore innocent Catholikes incensing the King and state to seeke their vtter subuersion and yet are they much more fatal to their owne followers ¶ For their tailes as it is also in the said text be like to serpents hauing heades and in these they hurt poisoning by their venimous doctrine and lende conuersation the soules of al men that beleeue and follow them Thus much by occasion of M. Abbots noble comparison of Asses and Horses That vvhich he speaketh of strange long-footed wordes inuented to stupefie the simple is a riddle to me our religion vseth none such As for nouelty of wordes bold faces bigge lookes brauadoes and such like they are the proper badges of the new Gospel and M. Abbot doth himselfe and his fellow Preachers great vvrong to impart their peculiar titles to others that deserue them not nor like any vvhit of them But let vs leaue these trifles and come to his worthy obseruation and argument thereupon It is That M. Bishop forsooth by law courses only defended his Majesties title to the crowne by diuinity he could say nothing for it Had not M. Abbots spiteful soare eies helped him to an odde insight of my writings he could neuer haue spied that there which was not to be seene in them for though I passed out of the limits of diuinity into some points of law yet diuinity was my ground vvhich teacheth that vve must yeeld to euery one his right and to lawful lineal successours the liuely-hoodes landes and possessions of their predecessours his obseruation then vvas false that I could say nothing out of diuinity for his Majesties title to the crowne But he wil proue out of Bellarmine that most learned Cardinal who indeede was my master and master also vnto many my betters some six and twenty yeares agoe that I could say nothing
out of diuinity for his Majesties title For it is but by the law of man that we haue this or that man to be our King but by the law of God no man is to be made King that doth not truly serue God then the law of God being to be preferred before the law of man it followeth that whosoeuer wil not truly serue God is not to be made King M. Abbot should haue done wel to haue solued this argument vvhich is not vnworthy the maker and taken as he meant it insoluble and may happen to trouble many of his readers but he loueth not this fight at the short sword but to range a loofe off and to defend his part vvith foule vvordes rather then vvith any sound reasons I vvil helpe him out of the briars this once and say that in case of free election of a King that argument of Cardinal Bellarmines is most sound for no good Christian ought to make choise of him for a King or to yeeld their consent to him whom he knoweth vnlikely euer to serue Iesus Christ the Soueraigne King of heauen earth Marry vvhen the Kingdome goeth not by free choise and election but by ordinary succession then the subjects must accept of him whom it pleaseth God to giue them For our diuinity teacheth vs that God sometimes giueth Kinges in his wrath and not alwaies such as wil serue him as they ought to doe vvhich are notwithstanding their vndutifulnesse to God to be receiued and obeied of their subjects dutifully in al ciuil causes And although God at the first left it to the free liberty of euery country to make choise of vvhat kinde of ciuil gouernement they liked best vvhereof it proceedeth that it is by the law of man that vve haue this or that man to be our King yet when such a succession is once established by the law of man and confirmed by long custome then the law of God doth binde al men to the keeping of that just and good law of man Thus much briefly to shew how I could very wel by the rules of our diuinity defend his Majesties title to the crowne and to certifie them that are in greater jealousie of our obedience then they haue just cause that vve take our selues bound aswel by the lawes of God as of man to obey his Majesty and dutifully to serue him in al temporal affaires howbeit we take the religion professed by his Majesty and his proceedings therein not to be according to the good wil and pleasure of God and therefore doe daily pray vnto the diuine Majesty to send him grace to see and amend it and to giue vs perfect patience in the meane season to endure vvhatsoeuer shal be laid vpon vs for the constant profession of his only true and sincere religion As for my skil either in this point or in any other part of diuinity I know it to be very meane in comparison of thousands among the Catholikes and am very wel content that it be put to the proofe Only I require an indifferent reader and one that wil not take vaine wordes for good paiment but waigh diligently our arguments together and try out by seing the places who citeth his testimony both of holy Scriptures and ancient Fathers more truly and pertinently SECT 2. W. BISHOP WHEREVNTO I may conueniently enter with that golden sentence with which your Majesty beganne the conference c. A loue principium conformable to this in holy writ Apocal. 1. vers 8. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and end saith our Lord and applying it to Princes I may be bold to say that nothing is more expedient and necessary for Kinges nothing more honourable and of better assurance for their estate then that in the very beginning of their raigne they take special order that the supreame and most puisant Monarke of heauen and earth be purely vprightly serued as wel in their owne examplar liues as through their Dominions for of almighty God his meere bounty and great grace they receiue and hold their Diademes and Princely Scepters and cannot possesse and enjoy them their mighty forces and prudent counsailes notwithstanding one day longer then during his diuine wil and pleasure Which the wisest King witnesseth speaking also in the person of Gods wisdome Prouer. 8 15. Per me Reges regnant By me Kinges doe raigne and Dan. 4. Nabuchodonoser sometime King of Babilon was turned out to grase with beastes for seauen yeares and made to know and confesse that the highest doth command ouer the Kingdomes of men and disposeth of them as pleaseth his diuine wisdome but I neede not stand vpon this point it being so wel knowne and acknowledged by your Majesty ROBERT ABBOT PLVTARCH reporteth that the Nobles of Lacedemon approuing a speech that vvas deliuered by a man of euil behauiour De auditione caused the same to be vttered by another of honest life and conuersation that it might carry the greater waight vvhen it proceeded from a man whose doings were answerable to his wordes M. Bishop hath vttered a goodly speech but it soundeth not effectually from his mouth or pen it vvere fit that some other man of other profession and comportment should be the writer and speaker of this matter for he denieth to his Majesty that supreme gouernement in causes Ecclesiastical whereby he should take vpon him to doe that that he perswadeth him and being sworne to the Pope he cannot but maintaine those lawes of his Distinct 96. Si Imperator vvhereby he inhibiteth Kinges and Princes to meddle with matters of religion and of the Church and reserueth the same wholy to be decreed by himselfe and his Prelates and as for Princes they must receiue and practise the same according to his order WILLIAM BISHOP HERE commeth to my memory that vvorthy obseruation of the diuine Preacher Eccles 13. vers 28. The rich man spake and al men held their peace and did extol his wordes vp to the skies but when a poore man spake they said who is this It becommeth not a Diuine saith our new gospeller to discourse of matters of diuinity but Princes doe them brauely To M. Abbot I answere first that his prophane story is besides the purpose for the Lacedemonians tooke exception against that persons speech because his life vvas not answerable but he cauilleth at my discourse not for default of my manners but for other points of doctrine Belike he thought it not expedient notwithstanding his example of the Lacedemonians did leade him thereunto to put mens doctrine to be tried by their life and conuersation least their new Gospel should by that rule be condemned and rejected because their Preachers and Ministers liues be not conformable to the precepts of Christes Gospel Besides the disproportion of this example that is also very false which he inferreth against me That I doe deny his Majesty to haue authority to doe that which I perswade him to doe to
wit to take special order that God almighty be truly and sincerely serued for Kinges may and ought to doe that though they be not supreme gouernours in causes Ecclesiastical For albeit it belong not to them to declare the true sence of al questioned places of holy Scriptures nor to determine al doubts rising in diuinity nor briefly to performe such other functions as are proper to the supreme Gouernour of Christes Church yet his Majesty might haue called together the most learned of his subjects of al sides and haue heard vvhich of them could best haue proued their doctrine to haue beene most conformable to the sacred word of God to Apostolical traditions to most ancient general Councels to the vniforme consent of the most holy and best learned Doctors of the primitiue Church and accordingly to haue embraced the same himselfe and by his Princely authority to haue established the same throughout al his Dominions It remaineth then euident That his Majesty might haue taken special order for the true seruice of God notwithstaÌ„ding he haue not supreme authority in Ecclesiastical causes And most false is this assertion of M. Abbots that any law of the Pope doth inhibite him to deale so farre-forth in matters of religion that Canon which he citeth doth only forbidde lay-Magistrates Distinct 96. Si Imperator to meddle with the ordering and judging of Priests and Clarkes and such other Ecclesiastical officers as doe properly belong to Bishops But that Kinges ought to meddle in matters of religion and how farre-forth they ought S. Leo the first a most famous Pope doth in these memorable vvordes declare You must ô Emperour without doubt know Epist 75. ad Leo. August that Kingly power is giuen to you not only for the rule of the world but is principally bestowed vpon you for the defence and aide of the Church that by suppressing wicked attempts you may both defend that which is established and also pacifie those thinges which are troubled But of this point I shal haue occasion presently to speake more at large It followeth ROBERT ABBOT AS touching the reason also vvhich he alleageth why Princes should take special order that God be rightly serued Because of his meere bounty and grace they receiue and hold their Diademes and Princely Scepters The Pope denieth that they hold the same immediately from God but are to receiue them by his mediation and approbation and no longer to hold them then they conforme themselues to his lawes Bulla Pij 5. Ecce nos constituti sumus super gentes regna c. Behold saith the Pope we are set ouer nations and kingdomes to build vp and to plant to pul vp and to destroy c. And therefore what the wisdome of God saith as M. Bishop alleageth by me Kings raigne the same the Pope blasphemously applieth to himselfe Prouerb 8. vers 15. Per me Râ—ges regnant By me Kings doe raigne thus the Pope would haue Princes as very beasts as Nabuchodonoser was not to know of whom they hold their crownes and kingdomes but to thinke that al dependeth vpon him But M. Bishop acknowledgeth here the truth that of God they hold the same and therefore should make it their special care that the same God be honoured accordingly And here vnawares he justifieth our doctrine as touching the Princes supreme authority for the gouernement of our Church the effect whereof we teach to be this to prouide by lawes and to take special order that God be purely and vprightly serued that Idolatry and superstition be remoued that the vvord of God be truly and sincerely taught that the sacraments be duly administred and the Bishops and Pastors diligently performe the seruice and duty that doth appertaine vnto them that the commandements of God be not publikely and scandalously broken for these things we acknowledge the King to be vnder Christ the supreme gouernour of the church within his Dominions and this duty M. Bishop confesseth to appertaine vnto him And thus did the good Kinges of Iudah Dauid Ezechias Iosias c. thus haue Christian Emperours and Princes done thus and no otherwise did Queene Elizabeth and yet for the doing hereof shee was proscribed by the Pope and so much as in him lay depriued of her Crowne and Scepter but the hand of God was with her and shee prospered thereby and died in peace c. WILLIAM BISHOP I Doe many times much muse how men of any sort and fashion specially how professors of Gods truth such as M. Abbot would be esteemed dare put into light such odde paltry shifts and poure out together such heapes of grosse lies A lie it was that I denied to his Majesty such authority as would serue for the taking order how God might be rightly serued in his realme Another lie it is that the Popes lawes doe inbibite Kinges to meddle with matters of religion A third that I affirmed Kinges to hold their crownes immediately from God vvhich though it be true in that sence he taketh it yet is it false that I so said in that place for I meddle not with those tearmes of immediately or mediately The fourth is that the Pope denieth Princes to hold their Diademes and Princely authority immediately from God but are to receiue them by his mediation for euen in the very Canon cited last before by himselfe the Pope acknowledgeth Distinct. 96. Si Imperator That Emperours and Kinges receiue from God the prerogatiue of their power vvhereupon the Glosse plainly noteth that they did not receiue their soueraigne authority from the Pope Which was also obserued in the Canon next before EadeÌ„ distiÌ„ct out of Pope Gelasius wordes And it is further the common opinion of al our Diuines vvherefore vnlesse this counterfait Diuine did meane here to lie for the whetstone I know not what he meant to huddle vp lies so thicke together euery one lowder then the other But saith he Pius Quintus writeth Eccenos constituti sumus super gentes regna Behold saith the Pope we are set ouer nations and kingdomes to build and to plant to plucke downe and to destroy c. therefore they apply to themselues that which the wisdome of God giueth to Kinges By me Kinges doe raigne This is the fift lie that he makes within the compasse of lesse then halfe a side for albeit the Pope vse the wordes spoken to the Prophet Hieremy Ecce nos constituti sumus c. yet doth he not those by King Salomon vttered in the person of Gods vvisdome vvhich M. Abbot deceitfully shuffleth in the place of the other Now the authority committed to the Prophet Hieremy did not make the King of Iuda to hold his crowne of him as al Diuines both Catholikes and Protestants doe grant wherefore though the same be yet remaining in the Church of God as it is not only granted by al Catholike Doctors but euen by the verdict of Caluin himselfe In cap. 10. Cor. vers
weene the old verse Impedit ira animum ne possit cernere verum Wel then supposing that vpon this faire admonition you be waxen for the while more calme and contemning the indignity of that vile tearme base fugitiue as most vntrue because God be thanked I was neither basely borne nor euer any fugitiue or turne-coate Let vs patiently examine where this treason lieth that he speaketh off and what those threats be where-with I menace my Prince These be al the wordes I wrote God knowes what that forcible weapon of necessity may constraine and driue men to at length Is there in this sentence any one sillable that soundeth of treason or sauours of any vndutiful demeanour towardes his Majesty doe I perswade counsaile or encourage any reasonable creature to take armes against my King and Country nothing lesse for I only intimated to my soueraigne Lord himselfe that it was not in mans judgement vnlike but that vpon the seuere execution of those rigorous lawes enacted some ouer-great inconuenience might happen to ensue And my humble Petition vnto his gratious Hâ—ghnesse to preuent the same in due season doth without further purgation sufficiently cleare me with al vnderstanding men from the imputation of any such thing if it should chance to follow Neither doe my wordes in any ordinary construction insinuate any deepe secret hidden amongst vs as M. Abbot vvauering like a vveather-cocke first affirmeth and after denieth but doe demonstrate a certaine feare of mine owne grounded not vpon any priuy plot then in hand according to M. Abbots most malitious slander but vpon that common maxime knowne to al men Durum telum necessitas Necessity hath no law as in plaine vvordes I then and there expressed Which is also confirmed in holy writ Multi propter necessitatem deliquerunt Many men through necessity haue offended This forewarning then giuen to my Prince of some offence that might happen to be committed if he out of his Princely clemency and wisdome did not moderate the extremity of those lawes vvas rather a loyal office performed to my King then any kinde of encouragement to his subjects to fal into a mischiefe And which makes my wordes much more sufferable I doe not affirme absolutely that any euil at al would follow vpon that rigour but say only that God knowes whether it wil or no leauing it as it was vncertaine vnto his Majesties more mature consideration Neither doe I talke of rebellion or Herald-like denounce warre to my Prince but barely insinuate that it may procure some manner of mischiefe one or another And that rather vnto some headdy hot executioner of that seuerity then vnto any other greater personage And that too vvhen what presently not so neither but at length may driue men at length that is after a long time if the persecution be stil followed Which may perhaps not touch his Majesties raigne but be extended to a succeeding age I then letting slippe out of my pen but an vncertaine conjecture of some manner of inconuenience which might at length God knowes when happen vnto some body was there any sparke of Christian charity nay any spice of moral honesty in M. Abbot thereupon to inferre that I like a false traitour did proclaime open warre against my King and Country Let it be duly also considered by the discret reader that the prodigious mistery of concealed and smothered iniquity whereon he harpeth and vvarbleth al his booke ouer is nothing else but his owne spiteful wresting of one poore line of mine Doth not his great and often threats vpon so smal an aduantage sufficiently witnesse that he lacked not good wil but conuenient matter to runne vpon and therefore was gladde to snatch at any shadow wel the old Adage therefore must needes touch him to the quicke Parturiunt montes prodijt ridiculus mus The mountaines were long in labour at length they brought forth a ridiculous mouse And if it please you further to conferre this my sentence with the assertions of the grand Rabbies of the new Sinagogue you may better vnderstand in vvhose bosomes lurketh the spirit of disloialty and rebellion a Luth. ad Elect â— Saxon. Lâ—ntgra Luther defineth That subject to offend God very grieuously that doth not for the defence of his religion rise in armes against his Soueraigne b Lib. 4. Epist Zwing Oecolamp Zwinglius declareth That if the Emperor oppresse the Gospel his people must by force of armes withstand him or else they sinne as hainously as the Emperor himselfe c Caluin in Daniel ca. 6. v. 22. 25. Caluin yet more hotly and impudently affirmeth Those Kinges that goe about to suppresse the Gospel to be rebels to God and vnworthy the name of men And that their subjects must rather spitte in their faces then obey them I omit our owne countriman Goodman vvho held his Princesse gouernement to be monstruous And Buchanan and an infinite rable of such rebels who in most cleare and plaine tearmes deliuer that it is lawful for al subjects to rise in armes against their Soueraigne if he goe about to fight against God and to supplant his holy religion These good-fellowes and their followers may justly be stiled Heralds at armes that doe denounce open warres to al Kinges and Princes that resist the errours and heresies of these new furious and madde Gospellers As for me I only out of my bounden dutie towardes my King and country and affection vnto men of mine owne religion did humbly request his most excellent Majesty to behold with the eie of pitty and to weigh in the ballance of equity vvhether the rigorous execution of such extreme lawes were not like to driue some of his fraile impouerished subjects vnto desperation and so consequently vnto some great inconuenience if God of his infinite goodnesse and mercy did not preuent it Why this manner of speaking should dislike Peter and Paul or any of the first Church M. Abbot hath not shewed any shadow of a proofe vnlesse outragious railing and reuiling must needes stand in his plea for sound reasoning He that wil make a true Christian interpretation of my wordes shal finde them not to differ much in effect from these vvordes of S. Paul Ad Ephes 6. vers 2. Fathers prouoke not your children to anger The reason whereof is lest those children being put in passion should forget their duty to their Parents and therevpon fal into some inconuenience Euery good King is as it were Pater patriae omnium subditorum pius parens The Father of his country and the kinde Parent of al his people My humble petition then vnto his Highnesse was that he vvould out of his exceeding clemency towardes his people mitigate the rigour of his lawes and not suffer his subjects who neuer had offended him to be oppressed vnder the intollerable burden thereof and thereby be moued to anger and indignation lest that should breed ouer-great impatience and so grow to a further euil which
Majesty drewme out of the compasse of mine owne profession to treate of law causes I trust your benigne grace wil now licence me out of the same fountaine of feruency and like zeale vnto Gods truth no lesse respecting your Majesties eternal honour and heauenly inheritance some thing to say in matters of Diuinity hauing beene the best part of my study for more then thrice seauen yeares ROBERT ABBOT IT vvere a thing vvorthy to be knowne vvhat was the drift of M. Bishop and the marke vvhereat he aimed in the dedication of this his booke to the Kings Highnesse When I looke to those goodly insinuations whereby he seemeth desirous to winde himselfe into the good opinion of his Majesty and consider the motiues and reasons which he pleadeth meerely for himselfe and the rest of his faction and conspiracy me thinkes his intent should be according to his pretence to gaine some fauour at his Majesties handes for tolleration of the Romish Idolatry and superstition that vvithout contradiction of lawes they may freely if not exercise yet professe and follow the same But vvhen on the other side I consider his exceptions allegations against his Majesties proceedinges and against the Gospel of Christ and his true religion embraced by his Majesty and by lawes publikely established among vs I grow to another conceit that surely he propounded some other matter to himselfe then the obtaining of that which he seemeth so earnestly to contend for For hauing to doe with a juditious and learned Prince who is wel able God be thanked rightly to censure what he writeth without doubt if he had made this his project to compasse the obtaining of his request he vvould haue dealt sincerely and faithfully he vvould haue forborne our church al vnjust and slanderous imputations he would not haue sought by apparant vntruth and falshood to justifie his badde cause he vvould haue had care so to carry himselfe that his Majesty seing nothing but true and plaine dealing might conceiue vvhat is amisse to haue proceeded only from simplicity of errour not from any obstinate and wilful malice against the truth But he hath taken a farre other course and seeketh very leudly by lies and tales to abuse the Kinges most excellent Majesty by pretending antiquity for those thinges which by antiquity were condemned by fathering their owne bastards vpon the fathers by vvresting and forcing their sayinges to that vvhich they neuer thought yea when sometimes in the very places which he alleageth they haue taught the contrary by deprauing our religion with odious consequences of heresies impieties blasphemies whereof notwithstanding I make no doubt but he himselfe in his owne conscience doth acquite vs. Whereby it may seeme that howsoeuer he were willing to put his request to the aduenture yet being himselfe without al hope or opinion of successe in it his special respect was to lengthen the expectation of his Catacatholike followers that they might not vtterly despaire of that vvith the hope vvhereof they haue so long deluded them to settle them in those heresies and irreligions whereunto they haue so long inured them to continue them prest and ready to those intents and purposes vvhereto they thinke they may hereafter haue occasion to vse them to prouide by these meanes with Demetrius that his and his fellowes craft and occupation might be maintained vvhich vvas now in jeopardy to grow vtterly to decay and lastly to adde some grace to his booke the better to serue al turnes vvhiles it should carry the name to be dedicated to the King no man imagining the case standing as it doth that he vvould presume to offer it to his Majesty but that doubtlesse he thought some exploit to be performed by him therein and that he thought so indeede appeareth by his owne wordes in the Preface to the reader c. WILLIAM BISHOP THIS preamble of M. Abbot puts me in minde of that worthy obseruation of the most juditious Doctor S. Augustine vvho speaking of such like companions Cōt Parmen lib. 2. cap. 3. saith They doe grope like blinde men euen at noone-day as if it were at mid-night which is the property of Heretikes who cannot see that which is most cleare and set before the eies of al men What could be more plainly set downe then that which I did humbly request of his Majesty and the reasons that induced me to present my booke vnto his Highnesse are there also deliuered so distinctly and vvith such perspicuity that no man excepting them whom that prudent father noteth for very blind or most vvilfully bent to cauil could choose but see them yea M. Abbot himselfe cannot but confesse that when he considered of them he was moued to thinke that I intended thereby to gaine some fauour at his Majesties handes for our party Notwithstanding that al men may perceiue how he delighteth in wrangling he wil needs argue against that which is as cleare as the light at noone day and beare his credulous reader in hand that he must not beleeue that which he seeth set before his eies to behold but imagine with him some other hidden matter this is a farre more grieuous malady of the eies then that whereof he complaineth in his Preface Phisitions tel vs of a perillous eie-soare called in Latin Fascinatio Englished the Eie-biting it appeareth most vvhen from a cancred stomacke boiling with malice certaine venimous vapours ascend into the eies and flowing from them doe infect young and tender thinges whereof the Poët speaketh Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos I wote not what biting eie hath blasted my tender lambes This contagious eie-malady is to our purpose described more properly in the booke of Wisdome Fascinatio malignitatis obscurat bona The eie-biting of a malignant and enuious man doth obscure and depraue good thinges causing simple soules through his subtile conueiance to take them farre otherwise then they vvere meant this loe is the true disease of M. Abbots eies which he discouereth al his booke ouer Here he doth peruert my plaine meaning by his counterfait imaginations and vvith his false surmises endeauoureth so to dazel his readers vnderstanding that he should euen doubt of that which he beholdeth with his eies The manifold causes that moued me to tender my booke to his Majesty are clearely set downe in my Epistle there any man that wil may see them The reasons that gaue me hope of doing some good thereby may be gathered also thence as his Majesties wisdome that could not but fore-see that by a tolleration great contentment would grow to many and be a strong band to encrease their dutiful affection vnto al other his Majesties proceedinges his clemency and most forward natural disposition to pleasure al men not delighting in the oppression and vndoing of his subjects the good deserts of Catholikes both towardes his most blessed Mother of sacred memory and towardes his owne just Title the constant fame that was blowne farre and neare of his
future moderation in matters of religion the expectation of forraine Princes his deare Allies these I say and diuers other important motiues could not but giue great hope of some better course to be taken in those matters of religion then had beene in former time And great reason it vvas that I who had beene to my smal power a fauourer of his rightful claime to the crowne should be as forward to doe vvhat in me lay to vvinne his Majesty to deale fauourably with them that so willingly honoured loued and followed him Al this notwithstanding M. Abbot if his aime faile him not vvil perswade his reader that I had no hope of preuailing First Because of my allegations against the Gospel of Christ and his true religion embraced by his Majesty Which reason of his is not worth a rush for the former part of my Epistle is to perswade his Majesty to embrace the true ancient Catholike Roman religion which al his most roial progenitours did loue and maintaine Now to performe that I must needes speake against the new and false exposition of the Gospel broached by the runnegate Frier Martin Luther and also further say what was fitting in commendation of the old religion that his Highnesse considering more maturely of that high and graue matter comparing the antiquity piety and purity of the Catholike with the nouelty corruption and vngodlinesse of the Protestant might the sooner be induced to embrace the Catholike Besides knowing that the harts of Princes are in Gods handes to be dispose◠off at his good pleasure vve may neuer be out of hope of any man so long as he liueth so that my allegations against the religion embraced of his Majesty and established with lawes vvas no sufficient reason to moue any man to thinke that I was out of al hope of preuailing with his Majesty Did not sundry of the ancient Christian Doctors present vnto some of the Roman Emperors then Heathens Apollogies and Defences euen of that religion vvhich they then greatly persecuted Did not S. Hillary that glorious light of the French nation to omit al others dedicate his booke vvritten against the Arrians euen vnto Constantius the Emperor who was a most earnest defendor of the Arrian heresie and were they trow you out of al hope of doing any good because of their exceptions and allegations against those Emperors proceedings and the religion established by their imperial lawes nothing lesse Nay they vvere therefore much respected of the same Emperors and had great fauour shewed them for those their zealous indeauours vvherefore this reason of M. Abbot is of no moment And lesse worth be his lies that follow That I deale not sincerely and faithfully but seeke to abuse his Majesty The good-man if he vvere so vvise as he should be vvould forbeare such injurious wordes vnles he did withal shew some particulars wherein I commit some such faults as he speaketh off otherwise he must be content to be accounted rather a slanderous brabler then a discreete disputer He saith also that we father our bastards vpon the Fathers and powreth forth after his rude māner many lauish foule wordes vpon vs but because he goeth not about to proue any one of them to be true he needeth no other confutation then a bare denial I wish very hartily good Sir that you could and vvould obtaine of his Majesty that we both might freely appeare in person before his Highnesse there to justifie whether of vs hath sought by lies to abuse his Majesty and by pretending antiquity for those thinges which by antiquity were condemned Now vvhat other answere shal I make vnto this audatious assertion of his that followeth That I in my owne conscience acquite their religion of heresie impiety and blasphemy then that of the Roman Oratour which fitteth wel such brasen fore-heades He that hath once passed the bounds of modesty careth not to become exceeding impudent For vvho hath made M. Abbot so priuy to the secrets of my conscience If their religion be not acquited and cleered of those imputations before I in my conscience purge it of them no doubt but it must alwaies stand justly charged with them see the Preface vnto the second part of the reformed Catholike wherein I haue deliuered mine opinion of their religion concerning those points M. Abbot hauing as he thinkes soundly proued that howsoeuer I vvas vvilling to put my request to aduenture yet I my selfe vvas vvithout al hope of successe he then diuineth and deuiseth what I respected in that my dedication The first thing saith he was to lengthen the exspectation of Catholikes If he meane that I endeauoured to encourage them to perseuer constant in their religious courses he is not deceiued for though the Epistle were principally meant and directed to his Majesties good yet consequently it may redound vnto the benefit of others Marry if he thinke that Catholikes doe continue firme in their faith vpon hope only of the Princes fauour he is fouly deceiued for they haue learned this lesson of S. Peter Act 5. v. 29. That we must obey God rather then men and that of Dauid Psal 117. vers 8. That it is better to trust in God then in Princes God we know of his inestimable mercy and goodnesse and by his almighty power can when he please restore the Catholike religion in our country in the meane season we are content to beare Christs crosse patiently and to follow him rather then to depend vpon the pleasure of mortal men As for other practises which he faineth to haue beene my second respect besides the diligent deuout exercise of Gods true religion vve allow of none much lesse doe we prepare any mans minde thereto Thirdly touching mine and my fellowes craft and occupation by which he meaneth the holy exercise of Priestly functions it was not at any time since they beganne to persecute our religion in lesse jeopardy to grow to decay then at that time for in that first yeare of his Majesties raigne when my booke was compiled more were conuerted to our religion then in any other yeare since I can remember which also was so notorious to al Protestants and so much spoken off throughout al England that M. Abbot must needes confesse himselfe to be either of simple intelligence or rather of so scared and corrupt a conscience that he passeth not how palpably he fableth Lastly vvhat grace could the dedication of my booke to his Majesty giue it if it be such a foolish bable as you make it wherefore your surmises about my drift of addressing my booke vnto the Kinges Highnesse are vaine and false But what is that that followeth it seemeth very strange and to haue leaped out of his pen vnaduisedly Doubtlesse saith M. Abbot he thought some exploite to be performed by him by offering his booke to his Majesty and that we may be sure that M. Abbot speaketh not this in other mens names without his owne consent thereunto he addeth
portion nor right nor memorial in Hierusalem which is the city of peace nor in this heauenly worke and seruice of Iesus Christ Hitherto M. Abbots owne wordes with a very litle alteration as may be seene in the margent these therefore must needes presse his aduersary very sore when they may so easily and truly be turned against himselfe W. BISHOP Touching his mangling and peruerting those texts of scripture vvhich he so clowterly botcheth together in the former place of this passage I haue already spoken in the Preface now to them of the later connexion Because M. Abbot is not yet allowed for an Euangelist let vs take away his owne vvordes and then vve shal presently see how handsomly the vvordes of holy Scripture hang together these they be It is not for you but for vs to build the house to our God Esdra 4. Feare the Lord seruing Idols also 2. Reg. 17. v. 34. old custome Ibid. 40. Hauing no portion nor right nor memorial in Hierusalem Nehemi 2. vers 20. Is not this trimme stuffe what reuelation hath he to joine together wordes that be by the holy Ghost set so farre asunder wel let vs giue him leaue to abuse Gods word at his pleasure or else he wil take it whether we wil or wil not but with what face can a Protestant say to the Catholikes that it is not for you Papists but for vs Protestants to build vp houses vnto God vvhereas most of the Churches through al Christendome built to serue God in vvere erected by the Catholikes and the Protestants haue rather pulled downe an hundred then built vp one for Gods seruice is not this sentence then properly applied by him That they also are rather like the Samaritans then vve I haue proued in my Preface Now to the last wordes that are most of al abused for old custome in that place of the second of the Kinges is not taken for ancient traditions of either doctrine or ceremony as M. Abbot would haue it to sound but for an inueterate euil custome of bad life and transgressing of Gods commandements for which the Israelites being often rebuked by the Prophets vvould not amend so that those wordes are taken cleane besides the right sence But there followeth such a consequence that it would procure a vomit to a weake stomacke It is forsooth that because the Israelites would not leaue their old custome of euil liuing therefore the Horomites Ammatites and Arabians meere strangers to them and of other countries should haue no place nor right nor memorial in Hierusalem for to men of those countries were these wordes of Nehemias spoken by the Israelites themselues and that aboue seauenty yeares after the other of old custome Did you euer see so miserable renting of Gods word in sunder and such paltry patching of it together againe without any time or reason without any likely resemblance or good coherence Doth not this argue the man to be vvel seene in the Bible or rather desperately audatious that dares â—o offer such violence vnto the vnuiolable word of God On Sir ROBERT ABBOT INDEEDE it is true that he saith that vvhatsoeuer talent of learning he hath attained vnto the vse and fruite thereof is due to his Majesty but the greater is his sinne to vvithdraw it from him to whom it is due being so farre engaged to the Pope as that his Majesty cannot presume of any true and faithful vse thereof As for the proofe that he alleageth of his sincere and dutiful affection it is vnsound For to this purpose I may wel demand as did Constantius the Emperour father to the great Constantine Euseb de vita Constant lib. 1. cap. 11. How should they be deemed faithful vnto their Prince who are found to be perfidious and vnfaithful towardes God It appeareth by that secret which he vttereth in his Epistle towardes the end that his loue is according to the rule of Bias if at least it were his Sic ama tanquam aliquando osurus Loue so as being perhaps in time to hate Certaine it is whatsoeuer he pretendeth that neither he nor his euer meant his Majesty any good vnlesse they could gaine him to be what they would haue him to be WILLIAM BISHOP I Am so farre from vvithdrawing the vse and fruite of my poore talent from his Majesty and the seruice of my country though for the obtaining of my smal talent of diuinity I haue not beene much beholding to either of them that I doe daily imploy it therein to the vttermost of my power by praying for them and seeking to instruct and confirme them in the true faith of Christ The vse of my talent is due vnto his Majesty I confesse being now my natural Prince and lawful Soueraigne yet so as almighty God vvho bestowed it on me be principally serued thereby Neither am I so engaged vnto the Popes Holinesse but that I may as fully and faithfully serue his Majesty as euer any true subject did his lawful Soueraigne Our Sauiour made no doubt but that a true Israelite might giue to Caesar that which belonged to Caesar and to God that which was his Neither did S. Peter or S. Paul make any question but that good Christians might perfectly obey their Princes and yet wholy discent from them in matter of religion and therein take their whole direction from strangers And euen those Christians that Constantius the Emperour did so commend and loue for their constancy in religion were as farre engaged to the Bishop of Rome then as vve be now and did no more follow the same Emperour Constantius in matter of faith then vve Catholikes doe our Liege Lord King Iames yea vvere somewhat further of him he being a Heathen and no Christian as our King is so fit and proper commonly be M. Abbots sentences taken out of the ancient fathers that they serue much more naturally for our purpose euen as this doth thus applied Euseb de vita Constant. lib. 1. cap. 11. Like as that renowmed Emperour Constantius did highly esteeme of those Christians that would not for any worldly losse or disgrace no not to winne their owne Princes loue or fauour deny their religion or falter in the confession of it yea further was of opinion That they who were so fast and faithful to their God would also proue most trusty to their Prince though of a farre different profession from them Euen so his Majesty after the example of so worthy and wise an Emperour finding his Catholike subjects so firme in their religion that no temporal discredit or incommodity how great or grieuous soeuer can remoue them from the due confession of it should thereupon perswade himself that they who are so constant and true seruants vnto God must needes also proue most loial and dutiful vnto their King albeit of another religion And it may in this manner also very aptly be returned vpon M. Abbot himselfe whom I haue before proued to abuse Gods word very miserably to
or Predecessours erred he leaueth them to the counsaile of God but by the vvord of God learneth himselfe to be one of them Vers 16. that shal hate the whoore and make her desolate and shal eate her flesh and burne her with fire Albeit it is vtterly false vvhich he affirmeth that al his Majesties Progenitours Kinges of these Realmes of England and Scotland liued and died in the Romish faith that now our Romish factours labour so much to set vp Indeede he and his fellowes are vvont to be very lauish in their speeches of this matter as if from King Lucius of Britanny and Donaldus of Scotland the only religion that had beene professed had beene that vvhich now is practised by them vvhere as it shal afterwardes plainly appeare that at the comming in of Augustine the Italian Monke 400. yeares after the receiuing of the faith in this Iland the Bishops and Churches of Scotland joined with the Britanes against those new obseruations which the same Augustine brought from Rome and vvould by no meanes admit thereof for the space of an hundred yeares at least refused to communicate with the English that had receiued the same Yea in the time of King Henry the third 1200. Math. Paris in Hērico 111. Anno 1238. 1239. yeares after the incarnation of Christ when the Popes Legate vvould haue entred into Scotland to visit the Churches there the King of Scots Alexander the second forbadde him so to doe alleaging that none of his Predecessours had admitted any such neither would he suffer it and therefore willed him at his owne peril to forbeare so long vvas it before the Popes authority could gaine acknowledgment in that Kingdome which his agents would make vs beleeue hath beene in al ages vniuersally and vnquestionably receiued But they care not indeede vvhat they say or write so that it may carry a magnifical and braue shew to dazel the eies of them that are not wel acquainted with their leude and naughty dealing WILLIAM BISHOP PAGANS and Heretikes doe now and then like Apes counterfait true Christians And no maruaile for their great master Sathan 2. Cor. 11. vers 14. doth transfigure himselfe sometimes into an Angel of light and did alwaies and yet doth labour ¶ * Esai 14. vers 14. to be like vnto the Highest but it is easie to espy their apish trickes and to returne their fond subtleties vpon their owne heades Simmachus plaied but the part of a foolish sophister when he pleaded so with the Emperour Valentinian we are to follow our Fathers for the Emperours Father and neerest Predecessors were no Pagan Idolaters but professed Christians as al men know vvho are conuersant in those ancient histories To the point of the proofe I answere in briefe that it is a most sound inducement among vs Christians and to be dearely regarded of al To follow the foot-steppes of our fore-fathers in beleeuing if they before haue not degenerated from their Ancestors The base and ground of it is this As God is more ancient then the Deuil and Christ IESVS then al Heretikes so vvas the true seruice of God and the right faith of Christ planted sowne and tooke fast roote before Heresie and Idolatry sprong vp vvhich hath firme testimony from our Sauiour who teacheth Math. c. 13. vers 24. That the good seede was first sowne by the Father of the houshold and the cockle after and ouersowne by the enemy VVhence it followeth perspiculously that they who doe hold the same doctrine inuiolably vvhich was embraced by them of that stock who were first cōuerted to the Christian faith are true and sincere Christians Those children then vvho follow the holy steps of their Catholike Progenitors ascending from Sonne to Father successiuely til they ariue at the first Christians in that country are true Christians and they that doe not succeede their Predecessors in their faith and religion but either are fallen themselues or doe follow others vvho before fel from the faith of their fore-fathers are vndoubtedly slipt into errour and infidelity By vvhich discourse it is euident that I tendered a most reasonable request vnto his Majesty that he would imbrace and countenance that religion which al his Progenitors euen to the first Christian among them had liued and died in because they vvere al Catholike and not one of them can be named vvho changed the religion of his fore-fathers yet this notwithstanding Simmachus the Pagan vsing the like argument in shew vvas not to be heard the difference is because his fore-fathers for vvhose Idolatry he pleaded had before forsaken the true and sincere vvorship of the one liuing God and therefore their children vvere not to continue in their Idolatry but to returne vnto their former Ancestors true piety So vvere the Donatists children of whom S. Augustine cited by M. Abbot speaketh not to follow their Fathers in that sect and heresie but to leaue their late corrupted parents in their new doctrine and to looke back vnto their grandfathers ancient faith and religion from vvhose integrity their Fathers were degenerated Euen as now a-daies we exhort men that had or haue Parents turned Protestants not to be led away vvith their erring Parents opinions but happily to receiue their forefathers ancient faith from vvhich their Fathers reuolted vnaduisedly And so shal they returne vnto the roote and original of our Lordes tradition as S. Cyprian speaketh because they shal returne to that faith vvhich was receiued from hand to hand euen from the Apostles our Lordes most trusty and sacred messengers and cleauing fast to that shal not neede to regard what any man hath thought fit to be dine or said against it Now to that point vvhich followeth in M. Abbot Apocal. 17. There shal be a time when the Kinges of the earth shal giue their power to the beast and bend themselues to fight against the Lambe vvhich I doe willingly admit but vvhen that time shal be or vvhat Kinges it is very vncertaine for there shal be also a time Esai 60. Psalm 70. When the Kinges of the earth shal be as nurses to the true Church and shal most humbly both obey it and also enrich and defend it to the vttermost of their power Now by the very insinuation of the Text and the vniforme consent of ancient writers the good Kinges shal cherish exalt and magnifie the Church before those euil Kinges shal arise who falling away from their fathers faith and from the Catholike Church vvil lend their aide to her professed enemies to vvorke her ouerthrowe vvhich is a shrewd presumption that the Kinges of former ages stood farre better affected to the true Church of God then some of later times Wel this I leaue to vnderstanding mens judgement But I may not slippe M. Abbots exceeding grosse ouer-sight or rather hainous crime in ranking his Majesty among those Kinges mentioned in the Apocalipse for albeit Cap. 17. they shal hate the whoore and make her
hundreths al his Majesties Ancestors both English and Britans embraced and maintained the same Catholike Roman faith which we now doe The same might as easily be proued of the Churches of Scotland vvho acknowledge Palladius and Patritius for two of the chiefe founders of the Christian faith in that country vvho both were brought vp at Rome and sent into Scotland by Celestinus Bishop of Rome to instruct the Scots in the doctrine of the church of Rome euen as Augustine vvas from S. Gregory into England From which the Scots Church neuer swarued vntil of late yeares Knoxe Buchanan and such like giddy-headed and fiery spirited fellowes seduced them And M. Abbot most ignorantly or impudently affirmeth it to haue beene 1200 yeares after the incarnation of Christ ere the Popes authority could get any acknowledgment there for in the very same hundreth yeare by him named they vvere so farre off from denying the Popes authority ouer them in causes Ecclesiastical that they did acknowledge him to be also their Protectour in temporal affaires For when King Edward the third would haue giuen them Iohn Balial for their King they answered him Walsingham in vita Edw. Anno 1292. That they would not accept of him for such without the Popes consent who had their country in protection as they then pleaded And M. Abbots argument to the contrary is most friuoulous Alexander the King bade the Popes Legate to enter his country at his peril ergo he did not acknowledge the Popes authority By the like argument one might proue that King Philippe and Queene Mary did not acknowledge the Popes authority for they commanded a Legate of his to stay at Calis and to forbeare entrance into this Realme at his peril The Popes Legates then when they be sent about affaires that doe seeme to the Prince and his Councel prejuditious to the temporal state may be refused without disparagement to the Popes supreme authority in causes Ecclesiastical And the King of Scots had reason to refuse that Cardinal Legate whose special arrand was to collect mony to maintaine the warres of the holy Land vvhich was not to be spared in his country Besides the very entertainement of such a great State so accompanied was reputed as needlesse so ouer costly for that poore country If M. Abbot haue no better stuffe then this to vphold his badde cause he that best knew his owne meaning and designement hath to the life painted out himselfe where he saith They care not indeede what they say or write so that it may carry a magnifical and braue shew to dazel the eies of them that are not wel acquainted with their lewde and naughty dealing ROBERT ABBOT BVT M. Bishop being out of doubt that he should not preuaile in this first part of his sute therefore addeth the second Or if you cannot be wonne so soone to alter that religion in which it hath beene your misfortune to haue beene bredde and brought vp that then in the meane season you wil not so heauily persecute the sincere professours of the other Where you see the presumption of a base and beggerly vassal I forget here that he is a Doctor of diuinity I consider him as a subject thus to vpbraide his Prince vvith misfortune in his breeding and bringing vp whereas his Majesties bringing vp by the singular prouidence of almighty God hath serued to make him high admirable among other Princes and he hath learned thereby to be indeede a King by casting off the yoke of bondage vvhereby sundry other Princes are enthralled to a beast Yea and by his bringing vp is so wel able to defend the religion he professeth that M. Bishop must stand before him like a dumbe Asse able to say nothing but only to repeate their old cuckowes song The Church the Church The Fathers the Fathers albeit he can make nothing good neither by Church nor Fathers But his sute is that his Majesty vvil leaue off so heauily to persecute them complaining before he haue cause and intreating his Majesty to leaue off before he hath begunne And doth he like a dissembling hypocrite talke of heauy persecution only for an easie imprisonmēt and amersement of goodes vvhen they in most barbarous and cruel sort by infinite vexations and torments by rackes and strappadoes by fire and sword haue spilt and destroied the bloud and liues of so many thousandes of ours only for the profession of the Gospel of Christ but no otherwise doe they complaine of persecution then did of old the Donatists and runnegate Circumcellions And vve say of them as S. Augustine did of the others They suffer persecution Sed pro fatuitate pro vanitate but it is for their foolery Prouerb 22. vers 25. it is for vanity Foolishnesse is bound in the hart of a child saith Salomon but the rodde of correction shal driue it away from him Indeede they doe for the most part play the children it is but their wil or rather vvilfulnesse for which they suffer they can giue no reason why they doe so but what ignorance affordeth them They must follow the Church they wil doe as their fathers and fore-fathers haue done it is fit that a childes stomacke be subdued vvith a rodde and necessary that some course be taken for the subduing and reforming of their wil. WILLIAM BISHOP M. ABBOT concludeth this his clowdy and vvindy Section with a storme of railing calling me in it dumbe Asse dissembling Hipocrite base and beggarly Vassal This last name he giueth me because I shewe my selfe sorry for that it vvas his Majesties misfortune to be bredde and brought vp in the Protestants religion great cause you see vvas giuen him to burst out into so rude and bitter wordes But to qualify this clownish tricke he addeth the excuse of a country Coridon rather indeede accusing then excusing himselfe for why did he forget that I was a Doctor in diuinity or how did he forget it that euen then so wel remembred it He would not forsooth respect it here but by a metaphysical abstraction consider me only as a subject wherein he discouereth a double folly for first who seeth not that any man of neuer so great vvorship or honour may in like sort be called a base vassal if his dignity and degree be excepted Might not M. Abbot himselfe if one should forget his calling and learning be stiled in like manner a base beggarly vassal vvherefore this figure of his may rather be tearmed rustical then rethorical And had he not also forgotten himselfe to be a Doctor in diuinity yea a man of ordinary ciuility he would not haue plaied the part of a furnish and foule-mouthed butterwench by falling into such rude tearmes of scurrillity His second ouer-sight is more queasie and dangerous for if I be a base vassal in that I am a subject then is my Soueraignes honour called in question for none be base in that they are subjects vnlesse their Soueraignes be so meane and obscure
faith of Christ and hauing now the old and new Testament he should by a Councel of his realme take lawes from thence to gouerne them by that he was the Vicar of God in his Kingdome that the people and nations of the Kingdome of Britany were his euen his children that such as were deuided he should gather them together vnto the law of Christ his holy Church to peace and concord and should cherish and maintaine protect gouerne and defend them c. But now the religion of Rome hath altered that stile and telleth vs Sext. proem in glossa That not the King but the Pope is Gods Vicar vpon earth his Vicar general for al Kingdomes And as for the Church the matters and gouernement thereof belong not to the King vvho if he make any lawes concerning religion He challengeth to him selfe anothers right that is Distinct 96. Si Imperator the Popes because God would not haue the worke of Christian religion to be ordered by publike lawes or by the secular power but by Popes and Bishops WILLIAM BISHOP TRVE M. Abbot you had neede to leaue Peter and Paul for heretikes who so plainely plentifully confute your doctrine and establish ours or else you and your fellowes must needes be taken for heretikes And if you hope to finde any of their Successors more friendly vnto you you wil proue in the end as fouly if not more grosly deceiued then you were before But how chanceth it that you lept from Peter Paul vnto one that was the thirtenth Pope after S. Peter why did you ouer-skip al the rest Was there not one of the other twelue that vvould afford you some peece of a darke broken sentence out of vvhich you might picke some colour of cauil against vs If they vvould haue yeelded him any comfort they should not haue beene forgotten as we may see by Anacletus who is afterwardes haled in by the way and yoked with another for want of some cleare sentence of his owne Wel let vs come to Eleutherius the man of whom you haue made choise First you relate such a wise tale of so vvorthy a Bishop so impertinent il hanging together and so weakly verified that no considerate person standing vpright can giue you any credit therein To beginne with the Authors that report it they be both professed Protestants and come more then a thousand yeares to late for the relation of so auncient a matter vnlesse they had alleaged other authentike Authours in confirmation of it But Hollinhead reportes himselfe to M. Fox a crafty deceitful lying Minister of his owne time Stow to some moth-eaten monument lying in the Guild hal Now what credit is to be giuen to thinges so sillily confirmed specially vvhere there is farre greater probabilitie against it for Eleutherius was Bishop of Rome whose epistles and letters vvere registred there and most diligently preserued in their treasury among other monuments of antiquity where one only epistle of his to the prouince of France is to be found And if he had vvritten another to a King of great Britany no question but it vvould haue beene as carefully preserued there as the other Againe what likelihood is there that any old writing of or to Lucius King of great Britany should be preserued in the citty of London vvhen al the Britons vvere driuen thence by their enemies the Saxons vvho vvere most like to make smal store of such letters specially which concerned the Christian religion to vvhich they were then enemies And if they had reserued any such should not venerable Bede our most learned and industrious country-man vvho made most diligent enquiry after al such vvhen our Ancestours were conuerted to the faith haue heard some newes of this famous letter vvho heard and writ as much of Pope Eleutherius King Lucius and the realmes conuersion as he could discouer and finde any ground for out of any part of antiquity the like may be said of al the rest of our ancient Historiographers whether English or Britons among whom there is not one to be found that made any mention of this vvorthy letter how then is it possible that there should be any such besides if you marke but the Kings demand and the Bishops answere both being persons of great wisdome and grauity such simplicity and incongruity appeares that any man of vnderstanding wil take it to be ridiculous and counterfait The King forsooth writeth to the Pope for a copy of the Roman constitutions and Imperial lawes for the gouernement of his realme the Pope writeth backe ad correctionem Regis to the correction and amendment of the King vvhich is an answere as just as Germans lips goodly stuffe surely and fit to lie hidde in dusty corners Those vvordes for the Roman constitutions to gouerne the Church are deceitfully shuffled in besides the purpose as may appeare by the answere And the King sent before and receiued by the Popes messengers ful instruction of al points concerning the Christian religion wherefore he then wrote only for the Imperial lawes to direct him how to gouerne his temporal estate To vvhich the letter maketh the Bishop to answere very childishly that he had the old and new Testament and willeth him to fish out thence the ciuil gouernement of his realme vvhich neuer any Christian King either before or sithens euer did Adde finally that the letter beareth date in those authours cited by M. Abbot 169. yeares after the passion of Christ vvhich is at least twise seauen yeares after the death of Pope Eleutherius But al these impertinences and improbabilities being set aside for the while let it be graunted that the letter vvere true and not fained vvhat hold can the Protestants take on it to serue their purpose surely very weake and such as may be most easily shaken out off their handes The letter hath That the nations and people of his Kingdome were euen his children Be it so a good King is Parens Patriae Pastor populi The Parent of his country and foster-father of his people followeth it of this that he is their chiefe head in spiritual causes then were the Heathen Roman Emperors supreme head of the Church for they were parents of their country that is nourishers defenders and rulers of the common weale this then wil help the Protestants nothing Neither wil that which followeth in the letter that they are Gods Vicars in his Kingdome and should gather his people vnto the law of Christ for the Roman Catholikes doe allow Kinges to be Gods Vicars not only in al the temporal affaires of their realmes but also that they should by counsel countenance example and authority draw al their subjects to the true faith of Christ and seeke to cal home al them that are gone astray and diuided from the Catholike Church and to establish peace and concord among them and finally to gouerne them so happily vnited in al such thinges as appertaine vnto their Kingly vocation
the Scriptures in foure seueral languages of so many seueral nations in this land whereas he signifieth the plaine contrary that the Scriptures were only in the Latin tongue among them and that therefore many of each language learned the Latin tongue that they might by the helpe thereof vnderstand meditate and study the Scriptures these be S. Bedes wordes Lib. 1. hyst Aug. cap. 1. This Iland at that time did study and confesse one and the same knowledge of truth in fiue sundry languages to vvit in the English Briton Scottish Picts and Latin tongue vvhich Latin by study of the Scriptures vvas made common to al the rest Note how for to study the holy Scriptures men of the other foure seueral languages were faine to learne the Latin tongue which they needed not to haue done if the Scriptures had beene then translated into their owne mother language as M. Abbot reporteth Another notorious vntruth and most malitious slaunder doth be cast out in the next precedent page against the blessed Bishop S. Augustine our English Apostle Page 198. That forsooth because he could not gette the Britons to obey him he therefore prouoked Ethelbert King of Kent a very good Christian to procure the death of two thousand Monkes of Bangor besides many other more innocent men whereas that holy Religious Father was dead and buried many yeares before that slaughter hapned which was also committed not by Ethelbert King of Kent Beda lib. 2. hyst cap. 2. but by Ethelfride a Pagan Prince of the North parts and that not for any quarrel of religion neither but to enlarge his Dominions and to be reuenged on his enemies Neither can M. Abbot or any other Protestant produce one ancient and approued author to justifie that S. Augustine was any way accessary to that wicked fact but is glad to shroude himselfe vnder the shrubbe of an old namelesse Cronicle and therefore Apocryphal cited by the Arch-lier and late partial writer Iewel fit witnesses for such a palbable and spiteful slander But if I would stand here to make a Catalogue of M. Abbots corruptions falsifications and other odde trickes which he vseth in alleageing of the Fathers and other approued authors I should reduce the greatest part of his booke to this place which chiefly consisteth in such paltry shifts and vnchristianlike dealing this that I haue here declared cannot but suffice to discredit him with al indifferent men For if he hath wittingly misreported such worthy authors of purpose to beguile his credulous reader as it is most like for he wil not be taken for a man that citeth the Fathers by heare-say without looking inâ—o their workes then he hath a most seared and corrupt conscience vnworthy the name of a Diuine and walking aliue is dead in conscience and consequently in credit with al men that loue the truth Sapient 1. vers 11. For the tongue that lieth killeth the soule But let vs suppose the most that may be said in his fauour that he hath not wittingly and of purpose to deceiue the simple cited the holy Fathers sentences wrongfully but taking them vp vpon the credit of some other of his companions without looking into the Doctors owne workes whether they were true or no and being deceiued himselfe doth afterwardes beguile others this I say being of courtesie admitted which is the best excuse that can be truly made for him yet no meane wise man can euer hereafter trust him that so confidently without any qualification auerreth such false tales for his vntruthes are so plaine and palbable that you neede no more but compare his reports with the authors wordes and at the first sight any meane scholler shal finde his cosenage and deceit I come now vnto the last kinde of abuse that M. Abbot offereth vnto the sacred senate of those most renowmed ancient Fathers wherein he doth more ingeniously discouer and lay open the right humour of a true Protestant which is to deny their authority flatly to controle and censure them as simple men to accuse them of error and falshood yea and finally to preferre olde rotten Heretikes opinions before the best of them To beginne with Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea a most famous Hystoriographer that liued in the daies of Constantine the great because he doth more mannerly reprehend him and saith Page 177. That we must giue him leaue to censure Eusebius of an injuditious and presumed explication of Constantines minde and purpose Truly I see no cause why we should giue him any such leaue for who can be so simple as to thinke that M. Abbot borne 1200. yeares after Constantines death should know more of his minde then Eusebius who conuersed with him most familiarly and was of his priuy Councel in such affaires and a man otherwise very learned and juditious Secondly he taxeth the most holy and reuerend Patriarke of Constantinople S. Chrysostome Page 175. for playing the orator and enforcing that in one place for true which in another place he himselfe denieth Page 176. and for reporting that of Constantines Sonne which is much different from the certaine story In like manner be standereth S. Augustine Page 54. for writing against Iouinian the Heretike whose opinions saith M. Abbot very audatiously S. Augustine knew only by heare-say and not of any certainty Secondly Page 60. Though Augustine doth not breake into those rude and vndecent speeches against marriage as Hierome did yet he was deceiued where he said that no Priests embraced Iouinians heresie I wil omit how they note S. Hierome that most vertuous zealous and learned Doctor with a blacke cole Page 57. For writing with al indignation and stomacke for railing and false doctrine because I make hast to acquaint the reader with the most shamelesse pranke of al others which is that they in expresse tearmes preferre the most infamous condemned Heretikes euen in the very points of their errors before the most juditious learned and sincere Doctors of the Church Page 73. It it manifest saith M. Abbot that Hierome one of the foure principal Doctors of the Latin Church was deceiued and that Vigilantius a loose and lewde Heretike had just cause to say as he did Againe Aërius a damned Arrian spake against praier for the dead Page 86. with greater reason then Epiphanius a most ancient learned and holy Greeke father hath defended it Iouinian a notable audatious and ignorant Heretike as both S. Augustine S. Hierome Vincent Lyr. cap. 15. doâ— ranke Iouinian in the nuÌ„ber of pestileÌ„t Heretikes and Vincentius Lyrinensis doe testifie though by reason of his later standing he was vnknowne to Epiphanius this Heretike I say Did teach as M. Abbot reports page 56. the doctrine of Paul in Rome against the superstitious conceit of the holynesse of Virginity before the holynesse in Marriage which notwithstanding was maintained by S. Augustine and S. Hierome with the whole court of Rome at those daies as be him selfe confesseth
from their parents kinsfolkes and friendes being content to liue vpon Gods prouidence and that poore pittance which the impouerished estate of some few Catholikes wil afford them The Protestant Ministers who by their profession are capable of fat benefices headships of houses Deanaries and such like dignities and commodities may be truly suspected to bend their studies that way and to maintaine heresies in hope of gaine and promotion and they who cannot be satisfied with two or three of those great liuings joyned togither or with one Bishoprick alone but would haue Bishoprickes and Deanaries vnited such men may indeede rightly be suspected to make marchandize of mens soules for filthy lucres sake but to impute couetousnesse vnto seminary Priests who haue debarred themselues of al preferment both spiritual and temporal which their Country yeeldeth to men of their profession and can looke for no other promotion there then a halter at Tyburne was no lesse shameful then witlesse impudency Briefly M. Abbot by tearing Gods wordes in peeces and patching it vp againe with his owne wordes ful il-fauouredly and by applying it most absurdly is found to offer as great injury to it as he hath done vnto those holy ancient learned Fathers aforesaid who were by the spirit of God selected to be the principal expounders of it So that finally whether you regard the handling of Scriptures or Fathers you shal seldome light vpon any Diuine that doth performe it more insufficiently shal I say or more perfidiously neuerthelesse he sets such a brasen face on the matter speaketh so confidently conueieth it so cunningly and doth gild it ouer so artificially that the credulous and vnwary reader would thinke him to be some jolly fellow and a rare flourishing writer But be that wil not take vaine wordes for good paiment nor tricks and shifts for sufficient proofes but wil weigh his arguments wel and diligently examine his testimonies he shal quickly discouer M. Abbots weakenesse and finde him to be one of the most shallow and beggerliest writers of these daies for he like a mount-banke indeede to returne his owne wordes vpon him setteth out for fresh and new marchandize the very rif-raf and refuse of other Protestant authors and that which hath beene an hundred times answered vnto by the learned on our side In him therefore is truly verified that witty obseruation of S. Augustine Lib. 1 cont Gaud. c. 39. vttered against the Donatist Gaudentius Nihil assert praeter lassum quassum he bringeth nothing that hath not beene already by his owne comâ—â—nions wearied out and as it were tired by ouer often vsing and 〈◊〉 our party so shaken battered and beaten that it cannot be but a foule â—sgrace among the learned to put into light and to set to sale so base â—erworne thrid-bare and ragged stuffe This I hope wil suffice for a preamble to aduertise the indifferent â—ader what opinion he is to conceiue and carry of M. Abbots writings â—â—e rest I remit to the Treatise it selfe desiring the juditious reader to â—â—are with those manifold difficulties which we that liue in the land haue in this time of persecution both to compose and to print our bookes which duly considered he wil not greatly blame our slownesse if our workes come not foorth so speedily as he may wel expect and we doe greatly desire Almighty God whose glory we seeke and for whom we labour in the conuersion and right instruction of Christian soules vouchsafe to send his heauenly blessing on our poore trauailes and vpon al them who with good intention shal reade them ouer MASTER ABBOTS EPISTLE TO HIS MAIESTY AMONG the manifold benefits which the diuine prouidence hath yeelded vnto vs by the happy entrance of your most sacred Majesty to the imperial Crowne of this realme we cannot but most especially recognize that vvhich we take to be the pillar and vpholder of the rest the preseruaâ—n of true religion and continuance of the Gospel of Christ â—hich albeit it be a singuler and inestimable mercy of God yet â—ere is found amongst vs a vipers broode a malecontented Samaâ—an generation which neuer ceasseth whining and repining there 〈◊〉 accounting this blessing of God to vs a great wrong to them â—hilest by a Cachexie and corrupt disposition of the stomacke â—ey better brooke the Onions and Garleeke of Aegipt then the â—anna of heauen and bread of Angels and haue eares more deâ—hted with the Mermaides notes and inchanting musicke of the â—oore of Babilon then with the plaine-song of true religion diâ—cted by the simplicity of the word of God Therefore as in the â—ies of our late most gratious Queene they neuer rested working bring this land againe vnder the slauery and bondage of the â—n of sinne so since your Majesties comming to the Crowne â—â—ey haue beene stil plotting the same not only by attempting â—ur Highnesse subjects but also labouring in their Petitions and â—dicatory Epistles to draw your Majesty one vvay or other to â—nsort with them in their damnable and accursed deuises And 〈◊〉 Mount-bankes doe set foorth base wares with magnifical and lofty wordes so doe they with braue tearmes labour to grace a counterfait and bastard faith and in their supplications haue â—â—unted to your Majesty of a religion and neuer rest to commend a religion which indeede in the questioned part thereof is no other but a refined heresie compounded of sundry ancient heresies only clarified by Schoole-tricks from the more feculent and grosse parts thereof THE ANSVVERE TO M. ABBOTS EPISTLE TO HIS MAIESTY VVILLIAM BISHOP THIS Epistle consisting partly vpon vaunts of their owne new-no-religion but more specially in a most bitter inuectiue against ours may for the former part be easily answered because that in al his Epistle he hath not produced one seely proofe of any parcel of it but only auoucheth in a certaine graue Ministerial confidence that their counterfait superstition is the plaine-song oâ— truth directed by the simplicity of Gods word which when he goeth about to verifie an answere shal be giuen him In the meane season we contrariwise take their profession of faith to be no better then a heape of ragged errors raked out of the dunghil of old condemned heresies though freshly trimmed vp and varnished ouer deceitfully with the glosse of Gods word after their owne interpretation And touching their pretended diuine seruice vvere pute it as worthely we may to be a prophane mingle-mangle compounded of some of the old and some of the new by humorous nouellers to please men in authority that they might there by shoulder out their betters and shuffle in themselues though most vnworthy into the highest places of dignity and best benefices of the land This briefly may serue for answere vnto thâ— which M. Abbot speaketh in praise of his owne religion Now to those grieuous and malicious slanders which he powâ—â—h foorth aboundantly against the poore Catholikes The first is â—â—at they are a vipers broode and a male contented Samaritan generation â—ood
vphold another and he that hath vndertaken a badde cause must vse vvorse meanes for the maintaining of it He chargeth the religion established and professed by your Highnesse with heresies impieties blasphemies absurdities and what not that malice and ignorance can deuise to speake And this is the common stile of the rest of them vvho when they come to proue and exemplifie what they speake they shew themselues to be but sicophants and hirelings to the Pope for whose sake they must speake to gale and disgrace howsoeuer there be no truth in that they speake And if they dare thus impudently carry themselues in print and to your Majesty vvhat dare they not say in corners to the intrapping and seducing of simple and vnlearned men by which meanes many of your Majesties subjects are intangled in a misconscience of religion and thereby withdrawne from the true conscience of their loyaltie towardes your Highnesse their Liege and soueraigne Lord and are made but flaxe and tow for the fire of their seditious practises who haue beene bold already to tel your Majesty that if you wil not yeeld them vvhat they desire Sect. 34. of D. Bishops Epistle Aug. in psal God knoweth what that forcible weapon of necessity wil force them vnto at length therein verifying of themselues that which S. Augustine said of the Donatists their Predecessors Where they cannot by sty and wily cosenage creepe like Aspes there with open professed violence they rage like Lions WILLIAM BISHOP THAT dissentions doe sometimes fal among the best and most perfect Christians is not vnknowne vnto them that be conuersant in the Scriptures In the beginning of the Apostles gouernement Act. 6. ver 1. There arose a murmuring of the Greekes against the Hebrewes for that their widdowes were despised in the daily ministery Againe Act. 15. vers 39. There arose a dissention betweene two principal persons S. Paul and S. Barnabas about the taking of Iohn surnamed Marke into their company so that they departed the one from another Such dissentions as are without the breach of vnity of faith and religion are so incident vnto the diuersity of mens different judgements that no aduised creature ought to be scandalized thereat If then the Priests and Iesuites did disagree about the introduction of a new kinde of discipline and gouernement which neuer lightly hapneth in any common weale or company without some jarre and contention what just cause hath M. Abbot or his fellowes to declaime against it We doe not striue about the number and nature of the Sacraments as the Lutherans and Zwinglians did and doe we doe not disagree about the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and the whole frame of church-gouernment as doe the Protestants and Puritans or briefly in any matter of faith or religion only the Priests found themselues grieued because in that matter of a new forme of gouernement to be put vpon them neither their aduises were heard nor their consent required vvhom it did principally concerne but al passed by the information and instigation of them as it was thought who would be wholy exempted from it At this manner of proceeding and at that which ensued of it they were not a little moued yet seing they orderly sought to their Superiors for redresse and referred the whole matter vnto their determination the dissention vvas but such as hath beene among the best Christians what great matter then can they make of this And did M. Abbot meane trow you by making me a special stickler for the secular Priests to picke a thanke at my handes for recōmending me thereby to his Majesty and the state vvho seeme to haue the Iesuites in farre greater jealousie for dealing in matters of gouernement then the seculars It is not likely because he foorth-with falleth to discommending me and my simple vvorke as much as may be wondering how I durst offer it to his Majesty being so ful of falshood and childish folly Is it not a farre greater wonder to see so industrious and learned a Doctor as M. Abbot vvould be reputed to be holden one yeare and a halfe about the answering of one sheete and a halfe of such childish follies nay is it not a wonder of wonders that he who taketh himselfe able to furnish truth with al it strength In his epistle to the King should notwithstanding confesse that he may not thinke himselfe to haue attained in this his answere to these childish follies vnto that that the matter doth require How hang these thinges together if you thought it pollicy to depresse and disable my booke as in effect containing nothing but toies and the rublish of old walles you should not so soone after haue declared in wordes and by long labour about it rectified in deedes that it required great ability and long time to be in any reasonable sort answered When you say that I charge the religion professed by his Majesty with heresies impieties blasphemies c. you in the waightier part doe falsly slander me Page 121. which I wil proue euen by your owne testimony For I say as it may be seene in your owne booke that I wil let passe their impiety that make God the author of al wickednesse and say nothing of their blasphemy who touch our Sauiour with doubting if not with despaire of his owne saluation In which my speeches I taxe by the way Caluin In the Preface vnto the secōd part of the reformed Page 124. Beza and some other vvhom I haue more fully proued else where to teach plainly those points of impiety and blasphemy But how doth that concerne the doctrine established and professed by his Highnesse seing that you your selfe testifie that you in your Churches and Schooles doe determine the contrary you your selfe then are my witnesse that I doe not charge the doctrine established by his Majesty neither vvith impieties nor blasphemies though Caluin and his complices stand justly chargeth therewith And you yourselfe though at the first you would seeme to dislike them yet draw very neare them for first you are not abashed to say Page 125. That God taketh occasion to prouoke a man to doe wickedly Now to prouoke that is to stirre vp and push a man forward to commit sinne is so euil of it selfe and so contrary to Gods wil and commandements that it cannot be imputed to God vvithout impiety vvho as S. Iames vvitnesseth Iacob 1. vers 13. Tempteth no man Further you say in the same section That the burden of Gods wrath lay so beauy vpon Christ our redeemer that it pressed him euen to the gates of hel and his estate for present feeling was as if God had abhorred his soule Page 127. Againe Christ according to his present feeling said my GOD my GOD why hast thou forsaken me which wordes signifie that our Sauiour both thought said and felt that his heauenly father for the time had forsaken him and did abhorre his soule which if it be not blasphemy I know
to yeeld vnto their willes or because that the Earle Gowry with his brother and family almost earnest Gospellers did actually attempt traiterously to haue murthered his Majesties most sacred person that therefore he should hate al men of the same religion and repute them for traitors I am wel assured they wil say no and plead that â—it were no reason nor justice to punish them that neuer meant his Majesty any harme for the fault of others and that in al religions there be some badde for whose wickednesse the good of the same religion ought not to be oppressed if they would thus pleade if the case vvere their owne they should in Christian equity admit the like plea for vs. But the simple people are by their preachers and others made to beleeue that al Papists vvere priuy to that conspiracy or at least would haue beene glad of it if it had succeeded and taken place they are very simple indeed that suffer them selues to be so perswaded For answere vnto the later surmise If it had taken effect it had blowne vp aswel Catholikes as Protestants and that in great numbers vvho the first day of the Parliament are wont to presse into that place to heare his Majesties speech wherefore Catholikes could not haue beene glad of that vvhich should haue deuoured so many of their owne profession Againe suppose al the Parliament had beene blowne vp vvhich God of his great goodnesse preueÌ„ted how much the nearer had the Catholikes beene to haue obtained the establishmeÌ„t of their religion the body of the realme being against them and would for that bloudy and barbarous act haue hated them much more then euer before it did so that it hath no probability that the wiser sort of Catholikes would haue beene glad that that should haue beene brought to passe which would haue proued so hurtful to so many of them without any certainty to haue benefited the rest This therefore is only a malitious and odious surmise put vpon them by their backe-friends at pleasure To the other point vvhich is of very great moment if is were any way probable I answere that al the circumstances of the matter doe fully cleere and acquite al other Catholikes of that crime for first the vvhole processe of the offendors is set out in print by his Highnesse authority where twelue or thirteene persons only are proued to haue beene priuy consenting and accessary to it who were al and euery one of them bound by oath and Sacrament not to communicate or vtter the same to any other so that al others being kept from so much as the knowledge of it how could they be consenting to that they knew not Secondly his Majesty both by publike speech in the Parliament and by proclamation in the country did declare that there were many Catholikes innocent of this treason yea some of them as forwardly to discouer and apprehend the offenders as any other subjects these be his Highnes one speeches which are very memorable in a Proclamation of the 7. of Nouemb. 1603. Although we are by good experience so wel perswaded of the loialty of diuers of our subjects though not professing true religion that they doe as much abhorre this detestable conspiracy as our selues and wil be ready to doe their best endeauours though with exspence of their bloud to suppresse al attempts against our safty c. vvhere also his Majesty out of his Princely equity commanded that the innocent should not be wrongfully vexed about it Thirdly that most vigilant and prudent Counsellour the right Honorable Earle of Salisbury now Lord Treasurer who was like to looke as farre into this plot as any other in his eloquent discourse printed doth not only free other Catholikes from that conspiracy but also yeeldeth a very probable argument therefore to wit That the conspirators rising in a country where many of their religion are thought to dwel none excepting some few of their owne seruants and kinsmen would aide or assist them Yea many sent their men and armour to pursue and apprehend them which was a manifest proof that they abhorred from that practise for in any ordinary quarrel the meanest of half a dozen of them might quickly haue found many more to haue taken his part then al they could get together to assist them in that hateful enterprise This might be yet further fortified if neede were by the testimony of Sr. Edward Cooke now chiefe Iustice of the common pleas then Atturney general who in his plea against the delinquents deliuereth the very same obseruation That none of their religion would take part with them therein Al which proceeding from such principal persons who were as of best intelligence in those affaires so nothing partial in fauouring that religion how then can any man of meane vnderstanding be yet holden in that grosse error that al Catholikes were consenting or any way priuy to that powder-treason And if al Protestants that conceiue so vncharitable an opinion of their poore afflicted countrymen be to blame how much more are those preachers to be condemned who notwithstanding the publike notice thereof giuen out in print of which they could not be ignorant haue euer since and doe not yet ceasse to cry out infame and slander al Catholikes with that hainous crime If they vvere Gods true seruants they vvould rather perswade to mercy thâ—n to justice because God doth exalt mercy aboue justice but to cry out against harmelesse subjects that they may be cruelly handled for other mens faults hath no colour of either mercy or justice but doth conuince them of inuincible malice the peculiar property of the euil spirit and his Ministers Now to M. Abbot one of their principal proctors for bloud as it seemeth He forsooth Out of the Apostles affection wisheth that his Majesty would giue order that Catholike Priests at the least might be euen cut in peeces assuring his Majesty and the state that if they with al rigour and seuerity proceede immediately against them the guilt shal ly vpon themselues because they haue drawne the sworde to be imbrued in their owne bloud What a bloud-thirsty Minister haue vve here what because some rash vnaduised Catholikes who were for the greater part much decaied in their estates haue deserued the sworde may al of the same religion how innocent soeuer of that fact be therefore cut in peece make yee no difference betweene the just and the vnjust must not the sworde of justice be put vp into the scabberd vvhen the vnjust and trespassers are punished No saith M. Abbot it must not so be for being once justly drawne he that draweth it may lawfully lay about him and strike as wel on the left hand as on the right it maketh no matter whom he kil and slay so he be of the same religion for the guilt of al shal be laid vpon them that first caused the sworde to be drawne and not vpon him that strikes Did euer any Christian man heare such a
wicked sentence can any thing be more vnjust cruel and barbarous what greater indignity could he haue offered vnto that charitable vessel of election S. Paul then to make him patron of this his most detestable doctrine who was so farre off from desiring any euil mans death that rather he wished to die himselfe for his greatest enemies then to haue any of them killed Rom. 9. vers 3. Optabam anathema esse a Christo pro fratribus meis and these wordes of his cited by M. Abbot are farre from that sence that he would wrest and wring out of them Indeede the Manichaean Heretike Faustus did take them euen as M. Abbot doth that you may know how wel one Heretike consorteth with another to whom S. Augustine answered 1200. Lib. 10. cont FaustuÌ„ c. 22. yeares agoe thus The Apostle seemeth to haue wished il vnto the Iewes that went about to perswade the Galathians to circumcision when he said I would they were euen cut off that trouble you but if thou didest wel consider the person that wrote it thou wouldest vnderstand that he rather wisht them wel by a most elegant ambiguity of the word abscissi cut off or gelded for there be Eunuches who haue cut and gelded themselues for the Kingdome of heauen which saith that learned Doctor Faustus would haue perceiued and tasted if vnto the word of God he had brought a Godly palâ—te or taste so that the true meaning of S. Paules wordes are that he would haue them that perswaded the faithful to be circumcised not only to be circumcised themselues but also to be abscided that is to be gelded and that not carnally neither as S. Augustine there expoundeth it but spiritually that is to liue continently al their life time the better to serue in the ministery of the Gospel If M. Abbot out of his Apostolical affection doe vvish that to Catholike Priests he hath his desire for they doe professe perpetual chastity the more conueniently to serue God in that calling but if he meane thereby to incense his Majesty to imbrue his sworde in their bloud as the course of his wordes doe too plainly import he vvas as farre vvide from the right meaning of S. Paules holy wordes as he differeth from him in spirit and affection And there fore too too presumptuously doth he ranke himselfe in affection with that most zealous Apostle S. Paul What doe you speake out of the Apostles affection bate me an ace I pray you modest Sir the best man that liueth at this day yea that euer liued since the Apostles time vvould haue beene fouly ashamed to haue compared himselfe with S. Paul in zeale and affection But our gracelesse Ministers that haue no sparke of true zeale in them blush not to equal themselues herein with the most zealous of Christs peerlesse Apostles which must needes moue al discreet Christians to debase and humble them as much as may be if not vpon conscience for loue of the truth yet to fulfil that decree of our Sauiour Christ Luc. 18. vers 14. He that exalteth himselfe shal be humbled Now to the last part of this Epistle ROBERT ABBOT YET the course by your Highnesse intended hath stil most necessary vse for the discouering of the impudency of these petitioners for the gaining of such as may be gained to the acknowledgment of Gods truth And that as * Bernard in Cant. S. Bernard saith though the Heretike arise not from his filth yet the Church may be confirmed in the faith To a part of which businesse since it hath pleased them to whom your Majesty hath committed the care thereof to cal me the meanest of many other albeit by reason of some infirmity in my eies I haue not yet beene able to performe the whole that vvas assigned vnto me yet for the time to giue some part of satisfaction to many of your Majesties subjects vvhom it hath much moued to see the state of our Church with calumnious libels so traduced and slandered I haue published this answere to D oct Bishops Epistle therein carrying my selfe faithfully and vprightly as to God and my Prince though my ability be not such as that I may thinke my selfe to haue attained to that that the matter doth require But that vvhich my smal talent wil yeelde in al humble duty I tender to your Majesties most gratious and Princely fauour hoping that your Highnesse acceptation of these indeauours shal stirre vp those that are of greater gifts to yeelde greater helps for the vpholding and further building of the Church of Christ The Lord preserue your most excellent Majestie and as he hath hitherto done so continue stil to discouer and bring to naught the deuises and counsels of them that imagine euil against you and as of his infinite mercy he hath implanted in your Majesty the knowledge and loue of his true religion so goe forward with his good vvorke to vvater that vvhich he hath planted that it may bring foorth plentiful fruit to the publike aduancement of the glory of God and the priuate comfort of your owne soule at the day of Iesus Christ Your Majesties most loyal and dutiful subject ROBERT ABBOT WILLIAM BISHOP THAT his most excellent Majesty desireth to haue al his liege people fully satisfied in these waighty matters of their eternal saluation he is therefore highly to be honoured reuerenced and beloued but that there is no better order taken for the due execution of it then to imploy the pennes of such railing vvriters we are right hartily sorry Our vehement desire and most humble sute hath beene and is vnto his gratious Hihgnesse that a publike conference vpon equal conditions might be granted vs vvhere men being brought face to face wil be made to blush if they speake not directly and soundly to the purpose and vvhere they shal not be suffered to shift off matters as they doe absent by writing In the meane season we wish very greatly and earnestly request them to vvhom his Majesty hath committed this care for answering our bookes that they would vouchsafe to match vs somewhat more euenly and not to appoint a great cracking sower of vvordes to cope with them that seeke to cut off al superflâ—ity and ornaments of vvordes and to furnish their worke only with arguments In deede if there were nothing in my writinges but childish toies as M. Abbot reports then he without doubt was a fit man to giue it the answere but if there lie more marrow and pith hidden in it then one at the first sight vvould perhaps suppose then surely it doth require a man of more substance then he though of lesser shew I haue in my Preface declared how much these few vvordes of S. Bernard cited by M. Abbot be abused That blessed deuout Father wished al Protestants and their like whom he in that very discourse defineth to be Heretikes to rise from the filth of their owne errours and euil life and to returne to the Catholike
meaning that it vvas in Ianuary past before he had seene my booke vvhich though he say not directly but that my booke was then sent to him yet he would haue his reader take it so that he might thereby and by that vvhich followeth gather vvhat expedition he had vsed in the answering of it wherein he giueth him vvrong to vnderstand For two monethes before that the booke vvas common to be had and great communication about the answering of it in the place of his abode and either he or one of his name had in short marginal notes assaied to giue answere vnto many points of the same epistle by that very Ianuary But admit that he saw not the booke before why did he not then goe in hand with it hauing receiued straight commandement from so high a personage to vse al expedition for the answering of it Forsooth the Barber-surgeon hauing his soare eies in cure would not giue him leaue to doe it Is it likely that the L. Archbishop was so euil informed of his estate that he would require him to make a speedy answere to a booke before he knew that he was in case to reade it But his Lordships letters perhaps found M. Abbot according vnto the season of the yeare frozen and could not as then vvorke in him any great resolution to answere but the spring following beganne to reuiue his drowsie spirits and in Iuly vvhen the heate of Sommer had throughly warmed him then â—â—e his affection to answere was so feruent and his disposition so fiery that he bestirred himselfe beyond al measure dispatching within three moneths not only this booke of thirty sheetes of paper but preparing also woofe and warpe as he speaketh for three hundreth more Surely this vvere vvonderful celerity if we might be so bold as to beleeue him but vntil he make better proofe of his fidelity he must pardon vs if in hast we giue not credit vnto him For vvho can perswade himselfe that M. Abbot being injoined to vse such expedition in answering would haue staied one yeare and a halfe before he published his answere vnto one sheete and halfe of paper for my Epistle containeth no more if he could haue sooner compassed it and who knowes not that a dedicatory Epistle vvhere matters are summarily touched only is none of the hardest partes of the booke to be answered But the man meaning in this Preface to commend himselfe aboue the skies saw that it was necessary to remoue this stumbling-block out of the vvay and before hand to excuse his extreame slownesse that it might not seeme strange how so admirable quicke a pen-man should be holden occupied so long time about so little I may not omit to note that vvhich now three times M. Abbot hath repeated to wit That the answering of my booke was committed â—o him from great authority vvherein he seemeth by his often reiâ—erating of it to take no smal pride that such a charge should be â—ssigned him from so high a personage But good Sir if my booke be nothing else but A fardle of baggage and rotten stuffe as you â—earme it it must needes redound rather to your shame to be â—hought a fit man to giue it answere For as euery man knoweth 〈◊〉 bald beggarly scholler is the meetest match to deale with a fardle of baggage But if there be more in my booke then you sometimes would haue people to beleeue they that haue a good opinion of it may hap to thinke that those graue wise-men in high authority fore-saw that it would hardly be answered by laying nakedly testimony of Scripture and Fathers to testimony and reason to reason vvherefore they thought it best pollicy to make choise of some jolly smooth-tongued discourser that might with a â—ufling multitude of faire pleasing wordes carry his reader quite from the matter and then blinding him vvith some colourable shew of learning lâ—â—de him into errour Proceede ROBERT ABBOT NOw the Treatise against which M. Bishop writeth is commonly knowne and entituled A reformed Catholike c. written by one M. Perkins since deceassed a man of very commendable quality and wel deseruing for his great trauaile and paines for the furtherance of true religion and edifying of the Church Against this booke M. Bishop so bendeth himselfe in his dedicatory Epistle as that with al he traduceth the whole doctrine of our Church and with such motiues and reasons as a badde cause wil afford him plaieth the part of Symmachus the Pagan Labouring vnder the name of antiquity Symmach relat ad Imp. Ambr. epistolarum lib. 5. to bring in Idolatry and to perswade his Majesty that that is Catholike religion which indeede is nothing else but errour and superstition In the due examination whereof waighing wel the sundry and slippery foundations wherevpon he buildeth I presume gentle reader that thou wilt be of my minde that he did not thinke hereby to preuaile any whit with his most excellent Majesty but only vsed the pretence of this dedication to credit his booke with them who he knew would take al that he said hand ouer head vpon his owne bare word Surely if he had not presumed of very wel-willing and friendly readers he would neuer haue dreamed to gaine any credit by writing in this sort What his Epistle is thou maist here see concerning the rest as yet I wil not say much only I aduertise thee and doe assure thee that if thou diddest like of M. Perkins booke before thou hast no cause by M. Bishop to dislike of it now Thou shalt see it assaulted with ignorance with impudency with vntruth and falshood with grosse and palpable heresie and that which he commendeth to be the marrow and pith of many large volumes thou shalt finde to be nothing else but a fardle of baggage and rotten stuffe For some tast thereof let me intreate thee to take wel in worth for the time this answere to his Epistle for the rest to haue me excused as yet both in respect of that weakenesse whereby I haue beene so long withholden from the following of this worke as also for the care I haue as wel to giue thee ful satisfaction in the questions here discussed as to stoppe the aduersaries mouth that he may haue nothing further to reply I haue propounded to my selfe the rule of Tertullian in such businesses alwaies to be obserued Decet veritatem totis vti viribus non vt laborantem truth is to vse it whole strength and not to fare as if it had much a doe to defend it selfe I am loth therefore to come hastily into the field and with mine owne sworde only to make an vncertaine fight but to take conuenient time to leuy such troupes and bandes â—as that I may not neede to doubt of the victory and it may appeare vnto thee that notwithstanding the crakes and brags of these Romish sicophants yet the truth is 2. Reg. 6. vers 16. That they that are with vs are more then they that
acknowledgeth his ability not to be such as that he might thinke himselfe to haue attained to that that the matter doth require which considering what he saith here seemeth to haue beene spoken only for manners sake to his Majesty For here he vaunteth as you see that he wil furnish truth with it whole strength and giue so ful satisfaction that the aduersary shal not haue a word further to reply Good Sir if you can boast of your owne doings so exceedingly without blushing yet in discretion you should haue beene more wary then to haue lied so grosly that euery child almost may conuince you of it euen by your owne testâ—mony You had forgotten belike the prouerbe Mendacem oportet esse memorem A liar had need of a good memory or else you would neuer haue let such contrary tales slippe out of your pen. Wel to stay the credulous readers that they be not ouer hasty in giuing credit to such vnreasonable and vaine vaunts I wil put them in mind of this worthy obseruation of the most prudeÌ„t King Salomon Prouerb 26. vers 12. Hast thou seene a man wise in his owne conceit a foole shal haue greater hope then he that is owne that taketh himselfe for very simple shal be able to performe much more then he that esteemeth himself to be so highly wise The waters be not there deepest where the streame runneth with greatest noise and as our English prouerbe is The greatest barkers be not the soarest biters Euen so among many Protestant vvriters I haue seldome seene any that promiseth more or performeth lesse then M. Abbot He floateth inflanting wordes but he is one of the shallowest for substance of matter that euer I read He alleageth diuers ancient Authours I grant but for the most part very impertinently many also of them most corruptly and falsly so that nothing is more absurd and notoriously false then this his conclusion More of the ancient writers be for vs then against vs. For not only the Romish sicophants as of his accustomed modesty he tearmeth vs but the most learned of their owne side both domestical and forraigne doe confesse compelled by euident force of truth that the auncient Fathers for most points in controuersie doe teach the very same doctrine that vve now doe Tâ—act 1. Sect. 3. See the Protestant Apollogy of the Roman Church where this is particularly verified yet M. Abbot that sticketh at nothing would faine beare the vnlearned in hand that the old Doctors fauour much their new learning but til he doe produce their testimonies more sincerely and to better purpose then he yet hath done few but fooles can beleeue him for hitherto as hath beene already shewed he hath not cited any one sentence either of ancient Father or of holy Scripture that vvas to the purpose Wherefore the discreet reader hath just cause notwithstanding his vaine bragges to thinke no better of the rest of his booke vntil he shal see the contrary wel verified for in deede he shal finde them to be but counterfaite dismembred and misapplied sentences vsed as men doe scar-crowes in a field of corne to amate and fright the vnskilful That which followeth consisting of the like crakes of their valour and our weakenesse needes no further refutation They haue beene hitherto so farre off from driuing vs out of the field as he craketh that we hauing by al manner of meanes endeauoured to bring them once out into the field to a publike disputation as it vvere to a ranged battel to try the matter could neuer obtaine it they vsing al the shifts that they could possibly deuise to hold vs from it And vvhereas he finally presumeth that he shal be no longer in giuing answere to my booke then the booke was in making his presumption is very vaine and friuolous for that booke was made in halfe a yeare as God he knoweth and many honest men can witnesse if time serued to produce them and the booke being of fiue and twenty sheetes he vvas holden occupied one yeare and a halfe with answering vnto the first sheete and halfe of it and since another yeare and halfe is past before his so vvorthy vvebbe be perfited The malignant humour that before troubled this jolly vvebsters eies is since belike fallen downe into his legges so that he cannot bestirre himselfe so speedily as in the heate of his spirit he presumed yet before this could be printed his whole worke came forth Robert Abbot A view of M. Bishops Epistle dedicatory to the Kinges most excellent Majesty VIVAT REX Anno 1608 ¶ Laus Deo Pax viuis Requies defunctis GOD SAVE THE KING William Bishop TO THE MOST PVISANT PRVDENT AND RENOWMED PRINCE IAMES THE FIRST BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF ENGLAND SCOTland France and Ireland defender of the faith etc. * DIEV ET MON DROIT MOST gratious and dread Soueraigne Albeit my slender skil cannot afford any discourse worthy the view of your excellency neither my deadded and daily interrupted and persecuted and persecuted studies wil giue me leaue to accomplish that little which otherwise I might vndertake and performe yet being emboldned both by your high clemency and gratious fauour euer shewed to al good litterature specially concerning Diuinity and also vrged by mine owne bounden duty and particular affection I presume to present vnto your Highnesse this short ensuing Treatise For your exceeding clemency mildnesse and rare modesty in the most eminent estate of so mighty a Monarke as it cannot but winne vnto you great loue in the harts of al considerate subjects so on the other side doth it encourage them confidently to open their mindes and in dutiful manner to vnfold themselues vnto their so louing and affable a Soueraigne And whereas to the no vulgar praise of your Majesties piety you haue made open and often profession of your vigilancy and care to aduance the diuine honour of our Sauiour Christ and his most sacred religion what faithful Christian should stagger or feare to lay open and deliuer publikely that which he assureth himselfe to be very expedient necessary and agreable towardes the furnishing of so heauenly a worke Moreouer if I your Majesties poore subject haue by study at home and trauaile abroade attained vnto any smal talent of learning and knowledge to whom is the vse and fruit thereof more due then vnto my gratious and withal so learned a Liege Finally for a proofe of my sincerity affection and dutiful loue towardes your Majesty this may I justly say that in time of vncertaine fortune when friendes are most certainly tried I both suffered disgrace and hinderance for it being stiled in print A Scotist in faction therein further employing my pen in a two-fold discourse which I hope hath beene presented to the view of your Majesty the one containing a defence of your Highnesse honour the other of your Title and interest of the Crowne of England And if then my zeale and loue of truth and obligation to your
Protestants vvil suffer vs to rest in no place vvhere we may study and further doe seeke by al the waies that the wit of man can deuise how to depriue vs of al meanes to maintaine our studies with what face then could this man say that our studies vvere more interrupted by the Iesuites then by them He addeth that they wel deserue persecution that destroy mens soules extinguish the true conscience of alleageance c. vvhich is true but concerneth themselues more then vs for rather Protestants then Catholikes be such as I haue heretofore in sundry places proued and therefore doe not stand vpon it here vvhere he only affirmeth it after his manner without any proofe ROBERT ABBOT NOw it is wel in the meane time that he acknowledgeth in his Majesty exceeding clemency mildnesse modesty louing and affable disposition singuler ornaments of a Prince and wherein is a special token of a King whom the Lord hath chosen but his threatning wordes towardes the end of his Epistle doe presage that hereafter they wil alter this stile and cry out as they did in the daies of our Queene deceassed of cruelty tiranny extremity of persecution and martirdomes when by their disloial and sediâ—ious courses they haue drawne from his Majesty greater seuerity and sharpnesse of executions then his Princely nature is of it selfe inclined vnto then shal this acknowledgment of his be an vpbraiding of them that they themselues haue made the rodde vvherewith they are scourged that his Majesty hath beene kinde and loâ—ing to them but they haue beene vnkind and cruel to themselues WILLIAM BISHOP WE are most vvilling to acknowledge al Gods gifts in his Majesty and to extol them to the vttermost of our power that his Highnesse may thereby both see our dutiful affection tovvardes him and be the oftner moued to thanke and serue God therefore Iacob 1. vers 16. From whom descend al good and perfect gifts We doe notwithstanding the great seuerity of his lawes against vs continue stil in the same minde that his Majesty is of his owne natural disposition very milde and clement yet by following ouer much other mens bitter and violent counsailes is too too much drawne from the goodnesse of his owne nature and disposition And although it be a maruailous pretious ornament in a Prince to be so humane and clement yet many haue beene excellent therein vvhom the Lord did not choose for his The Emperours Traian Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius were of a most courteous milde and moderate disposition yet being Heathens and following the course of their Predecessors lawes were not altogether free from the spilling of some innocent bloud of the Christians But let vs allow clemency to be one of the richest jewels in a Princes Diademe vvho then is to be accounted a more true harted and loial subject either I that endeuoured earnestly to perswade my Prince to keepe cherish and encrease that pretious gift of clemency in him vvhich doth so highly adorne his roial Majesty or he that emploieth his whole wit art and skil to depriue his Highnesse of the glory of those gratious giftes and to incense him to al rigour and seuerity If any men of our religion by seditious and disloial behauiour shal deserue seuerity let them be seuerely punished and if any be found so vnreasonable as to cry out against it vpbraide them hardly vvith that their folly But if for our religion only without any other offence to his Majesty or to the state we be extreame rigorously dealt vvithal or that innocent Catholikes be vnjustly oppressed for the faults of others then they must giue vs leaue to cal thinges by their right names and so to speake of them as they shal deserue for the Prophet doth hold them accursed that doe cal light darkenesse and good euil al thinges by men of truth are to be called by their true names If his Majesty vvould follow M. Abbots gentle aduise and embrue his sword in the harmelesse bloud of Catholikes he were like to get a good name and to purchase to himselfe a great renowme al the vvorld ouer in short space Now that which followes in M. Abbot is such a proper peece of stuffe that with the alteration of a few wordes it may be turned more truly against themselues then he hath spoken it against vs thus then it goeth with a very smal exchange of some wordes R. ABBOT and W. BISHOP BVT his clemency and kindnesse albeit it be an encouragment to good and faithful subjects in dutiful manner to vnfold vnto his Majesty their just grieuances and requests yet ought it not to embolden euil affected persons vvith calumnious libels to interrupt the peaceable course of his Majesties gouernement as M. Abbot doth by egging him on to the spilling of innocent bloud and to seeke according to their dronken humours and fancies the alteration of the estate and the admittance of those thinges the building vvhereof they themselues know not how to settle vpon any sure ground And this is the thing that * M. Bishop M. Abbot laboureth for seeking with Elimas the sorcerer Act. 13. vers 10. To peruert the straight waies of the Lord. And whereas his Majesty hath made open and often profession of his vigilancy and care to aduance the diuine honour of our Sauiour Christ and his most sacred religion he vvould in steede thereof draw him * to aduance to prepare the way to the Idol a Dan. 11. Mazzin the God of Antichrist and to establish damnable heresies by his Ministers first priuily brought in and now openly defended * by him whereby they his agents and factours 2. Pet. 2. vers 1. 3. Through couetousnesse with fained wordes doe make marchandise of the soules of men speaking thinges which they ought not for filthy lucres sake And this he doth vnder colour of deliuering what he assureth himselfe to be expedient towardes the furnishing and setting forward of so heauenly a worke But it is not enough that he assureth himselfe so vnlesse he could by good ground assure his Majesty also of that which he laboureth to perswade which he hath not done nor in deed can doe and therefore as touching his furnishing and setting forward of this vvorke we answere him as the Princes and Fathers of Iuda and Beniamin answered their vndermining aduersaries 1. Esdr 4 3. It is not for you but for vs to build the house vnto our God You Samaritans * you Papists you Protestants are mungrels taking vpon you to serue the Lord and with al doe serue the Idols 2. Reg. 17. of your owne braines neglecting the ordinances and coÌ„mandements of the Lord by which this house is to be builded yea teaching them to be impossible to be kept and doting vpon a new imputatiue justice so after * your old custome the old custome of al Heretikes seeke after strife and diuision a V. 34. 40. And therefore haue no
alleage the ancient Fathers sentences most perfidiously and so to pester and infect the world with lies That no man I weene can deeme him to proue faithful to his Prince that is found to deale so perfidiously both with God and man Now to that rule of Bias which being vvel vnderstood cannot be much misliked For such is the vncertainty and mutability of our corrupt and fraile nature that he whom this yeare we loue most intirely may the next yeare deserue to be misliked of vs as extremely for of a most excellent and vertuous man he may become bad without measure but of his Majesty I haue alwaies had a farre better opinion and doe daily pray to God to preserue him from al such extremities And howsoeuer it shal happen I acknowledge my selfe bound and stedfastly purpose God willing to beare towardes his Highnesse the loial hart of a true subject and the charitable affection of a louing Christian neither is there any thing in the end of my booke to the contrary That which he so often graceth vpon is already cleered and shal be more fully handled in due place Now to that which M. Abbot here deliuereth for very certaine to wit That neither I nor any of my minde meant his Majesty any good vnlesse we could gaine him to our religion vvhich not only to be very vncertaine but also false I may vvithout more adoe proue euen by his owne confession in the next passage vvhere he saith That the secular Priests vnder an vncertaine hope of his Majesties fauour acknowledged and maintained his just title to the crowne of England and would haue offered him their helpe at the Queenes deceasse therefore by his owne verdict vve vvished and meant his Majesty much good no lesse then the crowne of England before we had gained him to be as vve vvould haue had him for being vnder an vncertaine hope of his fauour as he vvriteth vve vvished that inestimable treasure to his Majesty Now vvhen his owne sayings wil serue to confute himselfe I may spare my further labour I hope that his Majesty hath found contrary to this mans fond assertion many good offices of both loial subjects and affectionate seruants performed to his Highnesse by men of our religion Sure I am that other mighty Monarks doe employ in places of great charge men contrary to themselues and the state in religion and haue thereby giuen great contentment to others and reaped no smal profit to themselues Now to M. Abbots disproofe of my reason ROBERT ABBOT BVT vvhat is the proofe of that his sincerity which he alleageth forsooth in time of vncertaine fortune vvhen assured friendes are most certainly tried he both suffered disgrace and hinderance for his loue towardes his Majesty being stiled in print A Scotist in faction vvhere vve see that a false marchant needes no broker how cunningly he gloseth the matter to make shew of great loue where none vvas What vvas it for his Majesties cause that those hard fortunes that disgrace and hinderance did befal you nothing lesse the Iesuites forsooth and the secular Priests whilest each seeke superiority ouer other fal together by the eares The Iesuites procure an Arch-priest one that should be at their deuotion to be set ouer the Seculars the Seculars refuse to yeeld him subjection and by appeale referre the matter to the Pope for the prosecuting of which appeale M. Bishop with another in his company are sent to Rome there by procurement of Parsons both â—e and his fellow vvere clapt vp in prison and continuing there for many weekes were at length by the sentence of their Protectour banished England and the one of them confined to Lorraine the other to France This is now the maine tragedy of M. Bishops misfortunes not concerning the cause of the Kinges Majesty any whit at al only in the managing of these matters it came to passe according to the prouerbe that vvhen theeues fal out true men come by their goodes for vvhilest euery part sought to prouide the better for themselues here in England for the time to come the Iesuites for their aduancement laboured to intitle the Lady Infanta of Spaine to the succession of the crowne of England but the Seculars presuming that if the Infanta were set vp they must certainly goe downe and choosing rather to aduenture themselues vpon vncertaine hope then to giue way to certaine despaire shrowded themselues vnder the acknowledgment of his Majesties just title not for any loue to his Majesty but for hatred to the Iesuites and for the preferment of themselues For imagining that thinges vpon the death of Queene Elizabeth would grow troublesome and intending to make offer to his Majesty of their help forsooth for the obtaining of the crowne they thought by capitulations and conditions his Majesty preuailing to make al sure for their part thinking that the Iesuites by their traiterous practises had set a sufficient barre against themselues and should be no let vnto them Hereupon they fal a vvriting one against another and M. Bishop is stiled A Scotist in faction and to picke a thanke with his Majesty writeth his twofold discourse One for the defence of his Highnesse honour the other for his title to the crowne of England a vvorke of supererogation for his part for his Majesty needed no such Proctours as he neither vvas the wrangling of a company of base fugitiues sufficient to question either his Majesties honour or his title to the crowne WILLIAM BISHOP HERE is such a tedious tale so impertinent so improbable that I could scarce endure the vvriting of it out yet that he should not complaine that any thing is omitted I haue put it al downe That part of it concerning M. Archpriests ordination is wholy besides the purpose and therefore I omit it wholy though it be mixed with many vntruths which would giue me aduantage against him if I were disposed to stand about them To the other of titles M. Abbot acknowledgeth that we secular Priests stoode in defence of his Majesties just title against the pretensions made in behalfe of the Lady Infanta And therefore any man of meane intelligence of the state of those Catholike countries vvhere we then liued may easily conceiue that we could not but suffer disgrace and hinderance by standing for a Prince that was not Catholike especially when we wanted not others to amplifie vrge and enforce the matter against vs. But our kinde friend M. Abbot saith we stood for his Majesty not for any loue to him but for hatred of the Iesuites and for our owne preferment I answere that in true Christianity when good offices be performed they must be interpreted wel vnlesse there be apparant proofe to the contrary as al good men doe agree from which general rule the Ministers perhaps are to be excepted and so they may vvhen al other reasons faile them aime at the secret intentions of men and judging them after their owne inward dispositions say though they did neuer so
vvel yet they meant not wel For vvhat other meanes hath he to be priuy to our inward thoughts and meaninges vnlesse it be by reuelation from heauen of vvhich vvhen he can resolue me I wil thinke him vvorthy of a further answere In the meane season he must be sencelesse that wil beleeue the secular Priests to haue bin so simple that they expected greater preferment vnder his Majesty professing and maintaining the new religion then they could looke for vnder the Infanta that would haue set vp the old For albeit the secular Priests had not beene aduanced vnto any of the greater liuings and dignities yet it could not be but that the meanest amongst them should haue had twenty times more the state being Catholike then being as it now is And if M. Abbot could not see this I should take him rather to be starke blinde then troubled with soare eies but if he saw this wel enough and yet to blind his reader would auouch the contrary then is he a shamelesse man and vvithout any care of his owne credit and honesty If it be demanded how we Catholike Priests could perswade our selues so much to respect and loue a Prince that was like to doe so little for vs and to employ our pennes and paines for him that might perhaps little esteeme of it I answere that he being by lawful succession to be our King our duty obliged vs to affect him Againe for his most blessed Mothers sake who liued and died so vertuously we could not but loue and honour him whom shee loued most tenderly Thirdly the Princely endowments which God had largely powred vpon his Majesty and specially his rare literature did draw the harts of al men that fancied learning to fauour him Fourthly we did euen then fore-see vvhat bloudy warres and intestine garboils were like to haue consumed our whole country if such opposition should haue beene made against him and therefore thought it better to seeke his Princely fauour towardes our religion and some moderate tolleration by faire dutiful meanes then to hazard any such forcible attempt Adde hereunto what a constant report vvas spread al the vvorld ouer which was hearkned vnto by the greatest personages that his Majesty vvould take no exceptions against any man for his religion but vvould suffer his subjects to liue quietly to their conscience and not so much as debarre any Catholike that should be found worthy from any place of preferment vnder him We hauing these and many other motiues of loue let any reasonable man judge whether we might not wel euen from our harts affect his Majesty and be prest and ready to doe him al the seruice we could M. Abbot hauing nothing else to except against my dutiful endeauours saith That it was a worke of supererogation in me for that his Majesty needed no such Proctour as I was I must needes take it kindly at his handes that he at length agniseth that I out of the aboundance of my affection towardes his Majesties honour and aduancement did doe my good wil howbeit there was no neede of my helpe I also vvillingly confesse that his Majesty might haue had many other who could haue performed that matter much better then my selfe yet that I vvas forwardly in his seruice when others vvere content to be silent I hope vvas no token of a hollow harted or backward subject And vvhereas he signifieth that his Majesties title vvas then questioned only amongst some base fugitiues so he vnciuilly tearmeth his betters by many degrees he shewes himself a meere stranger in domestical affaires for at those daies as al England can witnesse his Majesties title lay buried in obliuion and few men durst speake of it and not a few doubted of it a pamphet was printed directly against it an oath of assotiation and an act of Parliament seemed to haue beene made directly in prejudice of it There vvas further a most infamous libel published against his Majesties most sacred Mother and very exorbitant railing speeches powred out against her euen out of the pulpits the Ministers and others through her innocent sides vvounding also her off-spring and for hatred of her religion obscuring and blemishing much his Majesties interest to our crowne Where vvas then this valiant muster-master this powerable pen-man vvhy did not he then vvhen there was so great neede of defence make a sally forth and shew his valour and skil in the defence and fauour of his future Prince the time was nor propitious his affection was frozen he chose then rather with his fellow-Ministers to raile lustily at the mother then with the poore fugitiue Papists to write or speake in defence of their honour or title If you be such a seruer of times and flatterer of men in authority yet be not angry I pray you with those nor seeke to traduce their dutiful endeauours who in doubtful fortune and in times of disgrace shewed farre more true harts and forward affection vnto his Majesty Can you not be content quietly to reape the haruest of other mens trauailes vnlesse you doe also calumniate them vvho tooke so much paines for you can you not be satisfied to enjoy his Majesties fauour for vvhom you would neuer speake a vvord til it was for an aduantage vnlesse you seeke to incense him against them vvho vvere more feruent and affectionate in his seruice God send you more grace and better charity and to his Majesty more mature consideration of his faithful subjects deserts ROBERT ABBOT AND how little hold there was in these his defences may appeare by the example of his fellowes Watson and Clarke who tooke part with him in this action and the one of them wrote as much in the Kinges defence as M. Bishop did and yet when they saw vpon his Majesties entrance that thinges were likely to goe otherwise then liked them immediately they fal to conspiring and plotting against him the case is altered they vvere not now the men that they were before the like is M. Bishops fidelity and loue And he himselfe afterward plainly giueth his Majesty to vnderstand that he may hope no otherwise of him then he hath already found in them yet here he presumeth That sith his zeale and loue to his Majesty hath heretofore drawne him without the compasse of his profession to treate of law courses therefore his grace wil licence him out of the like zeale vnto Gods truth to say some-thing in matters of diuinity But surely if he by his law courses defended his Majesties cause no better then by diuinity he hath defended his owne he might very wel haue spared the labour and left it to them that were fit to doe it But this is the malapartnesse and sawcinesse of these base rascals and runnegates both Iesuites and Seculars to thrust themselues into matters that belong not to their profession or condition they are tampering with causes of Kingdomes and states they wil determine of Titles and Inheritances of Crownes and Scepters This is their
6. who to proue it doth cite euen the very same vvordes out of Hieremy And so 1200 yeares before him that famous Father S. Chrysostome did alleage the like out of the same chapter of the Prophet to the same purpose saying Homil. 55. in Mathaeum The Father said to Hieremy I haue put thee as a pillar of yron and wal of brasse c. yet the Father placed him but ouer one nation to vvit that of the Iewes but Christ hath placed Peter ouer the vniuersal world Briefly we granting the like power to be in the Bishop of Rome that was in Hieremy the Prophet whose wordes he vseth it can be no more deduced thence that Kings hold their Princely diademes of him then that the King of Iuda did his of Hieremy vvhich was neither mediately nor immediately for only a certaine spiritual power to roote out Idolatry errour and iniquity and to plant religion and vertue vvas by those vvordes giuen to men of the Church Which if it doe in some certaine case extend to the deposition of a Prince as I reade it hath beene practised by most juditious learned and holy Personages though I doe not reade vvhere it is by the Church defined to be any article of our faith yet no man is so simple as not to deeme it more holsome and expedient for the vniforme and peacible estate of Christendome that such supereminent power should rather rest in the supreme Pastor of Christs Church then be left vnto the discretion of the Ministers and Clergie of euery country according to the Protestants opinion and practise It being I say granted that the Bishop of Rome may in some case depose any temporal Magistrate yet can it not there hence be gathered that Kinges doe hold their Kingdomes of the Popes Holinesse For vvhen one King vvil not let his neighbour Prince liue in peace by him but doth extremely wast his Dominions kil his subjects and make hauocke of his country the Prince so molested if he cannot otherwise haue remedy may most lawfully by force of armes proceede euen to the deposition of that injurious King And yet the inuader did not hold his Kingdome of the other any more then the other did depend vpon him but was an absolute King himselfe as the other vvas notwithstanding by his intollerable outrages offered to his neighbour Prince he made himselfe punishable and subject to the other against whom he so grieuously trespassed In like manner if a Prince by most extreme persecution of Christs flocke doe become subject to the correction of the chiefe Pastor thereof yet thence it followeth not that that Pastor had power to dispose of his Kingdome at his pleasure or that the King did hold his Diademe of him either mediately or immediately howbeit the Prince through his owne exorbitant and otherwise remedilesse fault doe justly fal into the Pastors handes to be punished Here I doe by the way most humbly craue of them to whom it doth appertaine that it may without passion be duly considered whether we Catholikes doe not his Majesty more faithful seruice and shew our selues much more careful of the quiet continuance of his glorious happy estate when by al humble and faire meanes we doe labour most diligently to entreat his most excellent Majesty to deale more gratiously and mildly with his poore Catholike subjects then those hot-spurre Ministers vvho labour tooth and naile to cast their louing Soueraigne into such a brake of briars by incensing his Highnesse to hold so extreme a course against them For if his Majesty may be vvonne to follow the gentle and sweet inclination of his owne nature and to qualifie the rigour of the lawes against recusants in such temperate manner that the said recusant Catholikes may not be oppressed thereby the Popes holinesse without al doubt wil neuer goe about to depriue his Majesty of his regal dignity how forward soeuer he be otherwise to imbrace and aduance his owne religion for not so much for fauouring the Protestants as for extreame persecution of the Catholikes as the former example of neighbour Kinges doth shew that most seuere censure of the supreme Pastor of the Church is inflicted Wherefore vvhen it shal please his Highnesse to condescend gratiously vnto our humble and daily supplication for more moderation and mercy then shal his Majesty vvithout al doubt as euery man may easily perceiue take away al jealousie of those buzzes which seeme so greatly to disquiet the whole state Now to that point wherein the Kinges supremacy lieth according to M. Abbots declaration If it were only by lawes to prouide and to take special order that God be wel serued his word truly taught his Sacraments duly administred and that al Bishops and Pastors performe their duties then I should thinke him a badde Christian that would not acknowledge that his supremacy And I most willingly admit that the good Kinges of Israel did so but the man is so shallow shuttle-witted and vncertaine that there is no trust to be giuen to his declaration M. Perkins goeth more substantially to worke and affirmeth the Supremacy to consist not in the points aboue mentioned Reformed Catholike page 285. but in authority to declare which bookes of Scripture be Canonical which not and to determine finally of al controuersies and doubtes rising thereupon to cal general Councels and to ratifie their decrees to make Ecclesiastical lawes that binde al the Church and to excommunicate whosoeuer shal obstinately resist or breake them to consecrate and institute Patriarkes Metropolitanes and many such like vvhich when M. Abbot shal proue to appertaine justly to Kinges and Princes whether they be men women or children then we vvil allow the supreme temporal Magistrate to be also supreme gouernour in causes Ecclesiastical In the meane season we vvil pray that God wil vouchsafe to make them good and dutiful children of the one holy Cacholike and Apostolike Church and that they may humbly learne those high misteries of religion vvhereof most Princes as al the world seeth vvould be very vnmeete judges and also very euil dispensours What variety of religions hath growne by that kinde of supremacy what dissolution of Church discipline vvhat corruption of ciuil justice vvhat iniquity and deceit in contracts and bargaines vvhat oppression of the poore and generally what loosenesse and leudnesse of conuersation euery true Christian man doth see and lament and daily pray to almighty God our most merciful Father for amendment That vvorldly peace and temporal prosperity be no assured markes of Gods fauour nor of his true religion King Dauid is a sufficient witnesse Psal 72. Whose feete as he writeth were almost moued and beganne to slippe through his zeale against the wicked because he saw them suffered to liue in such prosperity and to die in so great peace And our Sauiour in expresse tearmes teacheth Math. 5. vers 45. That our Father in heauen maketh his Sunne to rise vpon good and hadde and raineth
vpon just and vnjust that is bestoweth out of his owne bounty many temporal commodities vpon them that doe ful litle deserue them at his handes Wherefore M. Abbot was ouer-seene to bring in the Princes prosperity for proofe of the goodnesse of their religion Let vs proceede WILLIAM BISHOP BVT sithence there be in this our miserable age great diuersities of religions and yet but one only wherewith God is wel pleased and truly serued as saith the Apostle Ephes 4. One body one spirit as you are called into one hope of your vocation one Lord one faith one baptisme my most humble sute and supplication to your high Majesty is that to your eternal good you wil embrace maintaine and set forth that only true Catholike and Apostolike faith wherein your most roial Progenitours liued and died or if you cannot be wonne so soone to alter that religion in which it hath beene your Highnesse misfortune to haue beene bredde and brought vp that then in the meane season of your tender goodnesse you would not suffer the sincere Professours of the other to be so heauily persecuted R. ABBOT SECT 3. Page 14. HERE M. Bishop propoundeth briefly to his Majesty the summe of his petition the foundation whereof he laieth in a principle which we acknowledge to be a truth that whereas there be diuersities of religions in the world there is but one only where vvith God is truly serued Hereupon he frameth his humble sute that his Majesty wil embrace and maintaine that only true Catholike and Apostolike faith but that needeth no sute of his for his Majesty already doth that For what is the Catholike faith but the faith of the Catholike Church and which then shal we take to be the Catholike Church surely the Catholike Church by the very signification of the word is the vniuersal Church so called Quia per totum est August de vnit Eccles Athanas Q 81. Because it is ouer al or through al the world and is not tied to any country place person or condition of men not this Church or that Church as S. Augustine speaketh * August in psal 56. But the Church dispersed throughout the world and not that which consisteth iâ— men now presently liuing but so as there belong to it both those that haue beene before vs and that shal be after vs to the worldes end whereby we see how absurdly the Church of Rome taketh vnto it the name of the Catholike Church and how absurdly the Papists take vnto them the name of Catholikes The Catholike Church is the vniuersal Church the Church of Rome a particular Church there fore to say the Catholike Roman Church is al one as to say the vniuersal particular Church To speake by their rule the Roman Church is the head and al other Churches are members to it but the Catholike Church comprehendeth al therefore to say the Roman Church is the Catholike Church is as much to say the head is the vvhole body Neither doth it helpe them that of old particular Churches vvere called by the name of Catholike Church it being no otherwise done but as in toto similari in a body vvhere al the parts are of the same nature vvhere euery part hath the name of the vvhole and no one part can challenge the same more then another as in the elements euery part of the fire is fire euery part of the vvater vvater and so of the like for so euery Church where true faith was taught August coÌ„t Epist Fund cap. 4. was called to distinguish it from heretical assemblies the Catholike Church and euery Bishop of such a Church vvas called a Bishop of the Catholike Church and no one Church more then another assumed vnto it any prerogatiue of that title Therefore they called the Catholike faith the faith that vvas receiued by the Church throughout the vvorld and the true Christians vvere called Catholikes August Epist 48. Ex communicatione totius orbis by hauing communion and fellowship of faith vvith the Church of the whole world it is therefore a meere vsurpation whereby the Papists cal the Roman Church the Catholike Church WILLIAM BISHOP M. ABBOT is now at length come from his extrauagant roâ—ing narrations vnto some kinde of argumentation Here he wil giue a proofe of his valour here we shal soone try whether he come so wel furnished into the field that he neede not to doubt of the victory as in the beginning he vaunted of himselfe or vvhether his special skil and force doe not rather lie in railing at vs and in cosening of his reader then in any sound kinde of reasoning That doctrine vvhich he learned out of S. Augustine concerning the signification of the vvord Catholike vve vvillingly admit off to wit That religion is Catholike that faith is Catholike which is spread ouer al the world and hath beene alwaies imbraced and practised euen from the Apostles time to our daies and such is the religion vvhich I vvould haue perswaded his Majesty to receiue in to his Princely protection To this vvhat saith M. Abbot marry that his Majesty hath already receiued it How doth he proue that not by any one plaine and round argument directly to the purpose but from the Catholike religion falleth to the Catholike Church and so spendeth the time in most friuolous arguing against the Roman Church of vvhich I made no mention at al. Doth he not deserue a lawrel garland for the vvorshipful ranging of his battle and is he not like to fight it out valiantly that thus in the beginning flieth from the point of the question Proue good Sir that his Majesty embraceth and maintaineth that religion vvhich is spread ouer al the vvorld and that hath continued euer since the Apostles time and then you may justly say that he vpholdeth the Catholike religion according to your owne explication out of the ancient Fathers But because M. Abbot saw this to be impossible he gaue it the slippe and turneth himselfe to proue the Roman religion not to be the Catholike and perceiuing that also as hard to performe as the other he shuffles from the religion and faith of vvhich the question vvas vnto the Roman Church that is from the faith professed at Rome to the persons inhabiting the citty of Rome whom he wil proue not to be Catholikes and the Roman Church not to be the Catholike Church Doe you marke vvhat winding and turning and what doubling this simple Minister is driuen vnto ere he can come to make any shew of a silly argument But let vs giue him leaue to vvander vvhither his fancy leadeth him that vve may at length heare vvhat he would say It is forsooth That the Church of Rome doth absurdly cal her selfe the Catholike Church and that Papists doe absurdly take to themselues the name of Catholikes because the Catholike Church is the vniuersal Church but the Church of Rome is a particular Church therefore to say the Roman Catholike Church is
that their roial estate cannot giue lustre and dignity to those that serue and obey them for Soueraigne and Subjects be correlatiues and the splendour of the one doth dignifie and ennoble the other And to derogate from the subject in that he is a subject is to disparage and to blemish greatly the Soueraignes Majesty M. Abbot then shewed himselfe a jolly wise-man and very acute when he would remoue the cause of basenesse from my degree and cast it vpon the respect of my subjection vvhich is common to me with al other his Majesties subjects euen of the highest dignity and most honourable calling I doe not here forget that there is incomparable difference betweene one subject and another both in degree and quality yet am I bold to say that he vvho debaseth any one subject considered as a subject as M. Abbot speaketh doth jointly offer great wrong and disgrace not only to al the rest of the subjects but euen to the Soueraigne himselfe Here I hope the courteous Reader vvil giue me leaue to say some-thing of the birth and degree of some Roman Priests being by M. Abbot so often vpbraided with beggarly basenesse neither vvil I report aught else then that vvhich by some honest men of great intelligence is recorded for very true to wit that since these times of persecution more Gentlemen borne haue beene made Roman Priests then are to be found in al the English Ministery though for euery one Priest there be more then an hundreth Ministers And touching M. Abbot himselfe I am credibly informed that he is by birth but a meane Tanners Sonne of Gilford in Surrey and was at his first comming to Oxford but a poore Scholler gladde to sweepe and dresse vp chambers and to play the drudge for a slender pittance Which I doe not vvrite as in contempt of such base beginnings from vvhich many haue proued profound Clarkes and growne to great promotion but only to admonish M. Abbot out of the remembrance of his owne condition not to carry himselfe so contemptuously towardes others vvho vvere borne his betters farre and not brought vp so beggarly but that they had as good maintainance in the Vniuersity as those vvhose shoes he was gladde to wipe and to sweepe their chambers other wise that graue sentence of the wise Poët must needes be verified in him Nil est asperius humili cum surgit in altum None carry themselues more rough currish and hawty Then these base companions once raised to dignity But setting aside both right of birth and degree of study the very sacred order of Priest-hood vnto which albeit most vnworthy vve are by the meere goodnesse of God called doth by the stile of holy Canons exempt vs from the vulgar sort and by vertue of that sacred calling adorne and dignifie vs Distinct. 5. Can. denâ—que Deniue Sacerdotes c. quos dignitas Ecclesiastici gradus exornat Againe the most ancient and reuerend Fathers haue alwaies had the holy vocation of Priest-hood in so high and singular estimation that they haue not feared to paraleel and compare it vvith the greatest temporal Majesty on earth The ground of their reason is this Priests receiue power from IESVS Christ ouer the soules of men and that in supernatural courses teÌ„ding to the most high end of euerlasting blisse and glory vvhereas the Princes of this world how puisant soeuer they be haue dominion only ouer our goodes and bodies in ciuil causes to the quiet peacible gouernement of the affaires of this life Priests then honoured vvith such high gifts vvhich were neuer bestowed vpon Angels to vse S. Chrysostomes wordes that is that had * Lib. 3. de Sacerdot fâ—om Christ authority and power to a Ioh. 20. forgiue sinnes to consecrate his blessed b Math. 26. body that are briefly c 1. Cor. 4. the dispensours of Gods holy word and Sacraments d Hebr. 5. veâ—s 1. 2. taken from among men and appointed for men in those thinges that appertaine vnto God that they may offer gifts and sacrifices as for their owne so for the sinnes of the rest of Gods people to vse the Apostles wordes if these mens heauenly function be base beggarly and contemptible it is in the conceit only of blinded worldlings e 1. Cor. 2. vers 14. That perceiue not the thinges which are of the spirit of God nor can judge of them because they be spiritually to be examined And M. Abbot the best floure of whose garland is his Ecclesiastical calling should haue left the vilifying of the order of Priest-hood to some other of the laity And so no doubt he would haue done had he beene a true Clergy-man in deede and not so called by meere vsurpation for as you know it is the part of an vncleane bird to defile her owne nest But the wel-nurtured man would perhaps out of his little good manners haue made exception of this also as he did of my degree if he had remembred it Now to that vvhich followeth to shew that he had some cause to burst out into those bigge wordes he saies That I did vpbraide my Prince with misfortune in his bringing vp which is false for I mentioned it with compassion as King Priamus calamities are by many remembred vvith sorrow yet with great affection to his person I did not write a sillable that sounded to his Majesties disgrace but did rather excuse his failing in religion laying the fault of it vpon them who in his tender yeares vvhen he was not able to judge misinstructed him signifying that if it had beene his blessed hap to haue escaped their seducing speeches til he had come to riper age he would rather haue controled and corrected them then haue giuen eare to their errours and follies I vvillingly acknowledge a most rare readinesse of wit in his Majesty and firmenesse of memory both to attaine to high litterature and to deliuer it most eloquently so much the more sorry I am that these goodly and faire gifts of nature wanted such supernatural aides and ornameÌ„ts as education in the Catholike Church and among the best sort of Catholikes might and would most willingly haue afforded him for then no doubt he would haue farre out-gone himself in al good litterature and proued most singular Let the considerate reader to judge the better of our spirits compare my speeches to my Soueraigne vvith M. Abbots of the supreme Pastour of the Church as we beleeue vvhom the Protestants doe not denie to be one of the chiefest Patriarkes of the Christian world I meane the Bishop of Rome vvhom M. Abbot doth coÌ„monly raile vpon in most vile and reprochful tearmes stiling him ordinarily nothing else but The man of sinne and perdition the whoore of Babilon Antichrist himselfe and such like betweene whose supereminent dignity and M. Abbots meane place there is no lesse difference then betweene a temporal Prince and his subject of any good sort If I then be rightly
Finally he doth absurdly apply S. Augustines wordes spoken against the Donatists to vs they vvil much better fit the Protestants vvho imitate their errours in most points as I haue proued already who also may be more aptly resembled to children that stand in neede of a rodde because their religion is euery vvay childish as being young and of late borne phantastical and without any sound ground of mature judgement as changeable also as children according to the diuers humour of the state and time SECT 4. W. BISHOP VERY many vrgent and forcible reasons might be produced in fauour and defence of the Catholike Roman religion whereof diuers haue beene already in most learned Treatises tendered to your Majesty wherefore I wil only touch three two chosen out of the subject of this booke the third selected from a sentence of your Majesty recorded in the aforesaid conference And because that argument is as most sensible so best assured which proceedeth from a principle either euident in it selfe or else granted and confessed to be true my first proofe shal be grounded vpon that your Highnesse resolute and constant opinion recorded in the said conference Page 75. to wit That no Church ought to separate it selfe further from the Church of Rome either in doctrine or ceremony then shee hath departed from her selfe when shee was in her most flourishing and best estate from whence I deduce this reason The principal pillars of the Roman Church in her most flourishing estate taught in al points of religion the same doctrine that shee nâ—w holdeth and teacheth and in expresse tearmes condemneth for errour and heresie most of the articles which the Protestants esteeme as chiefe partes of their reformed Gospel therefore if your Majesty wil resolutely embrace and constantly defend that doctrine which the Roman Church maintained in her most flourishing estate you must forsake the Protestant and take the Catholike into your Princely and Roial protection ROBERT ABBOT YOV talke M. Bishop of many vrgent and forcible reasons but you talke as your fellowes doe like mount-bankes and juglers You haue much prating and many wordes but your reasons vvhen they are duly examined are as light as feathers before the vvinde neither vvould they seeme other to your owne followers but that you bewitch them with this principle that they must read nothing written on our part for answere to them we see your vrgent and forcible reasons in this booke vvhich you tel vs is the marrow and pith of many volumes I doubt not but by that time I haue examined the same your owne pupils and schollers if they reade the answere wil account you a meere seducer a cosener and abuser of them and wil detest you accordingly But to beginne withal you offer three reasons to his Majesty in this your Epistle for the justifying of your Romish religion for the impeaching of ours Two chosen out of the subject of this booke the third selected from a sentence of his Majesty Now if these reasons proue reasonlesse then your reason M. Bishop should haue taught you more manners and duty then thus to trouble his Majesty vvith your reasonlesse reasons To examine them in order the first reason is grounded vpon a principle most judiciously soundly affirmed by his Majesty That no Church ought further to seperate it selfe from the Church of Rome in doctrine or ceremony then shee hath departed from her selfe when shee was in her flourishing best estate and which is subtilly left out by M. Bishop from Christ her Lord and head For seeing it cannot be denied that the Church of Rome vvas once sound and vpright in faith the Apostle bearing witnesse Rom. 1. That their faith was published throughout the world it must needes follow that vvhat shee hath not since that time altered is stil vpright and sound and therefore to be embraced Now from thence M. Bishop argueth thus The principal pillars of the Church of Rome in her most flourishing estate taught in al points the same doctrine that shee now teacheth and in expresse tearmes did condemne of heresie most of the articles of our religion ergo c. but soft and faire M. Bishop there is no hast c. WILLIAM BISHOP TRVE there is no hast indeede for M. Abbot comes faire and soft to the matter What a number of idle vaunting wordes and vaine repetitions be here as though any juditious man vvere to be perswaded by bare wordes and voluntary supposals before he see any proofe S ir I doubt not but the indifferent reader vvil suspend his judgement and deeme nere the worse of my vvriting for your empty censure til he see good reason to the contrary Sure I am that some Catholikes hauing read your booke doe like much the better of mine and esteeme yours a very fond peece of worke ful of babble lies and foule wordes void of found proofes and farre from common ciuility Who are more circumspect then you your selues to keepe your followers from reading our bookes vvho first imprison any that wil helpe to print them then set fines on al their heades that shal keepe them and make very diligent search after them so that al these common wordes may most truly be returned vpon your selfe Mutato nomine de te narratur fabula You note that I subtilly left out of his Majesties speech from Christ her Lord and head but shew no cause why and no maruaile for none indeede can be shewed they are needlesse wordes as being comprehended in the former For if the Church of Rome departed not from her selfe vvhen shee was in her most flourishing and best estate shee cannot depart from Christ her Lord and head vvherefore to note this for a subtle tricke giueth the reader cause to note you for a wrangler and one that is very captious where no cause is offered M. Abbot comes at length to my first reason and goeth about to disproue it thus ROBERT ABBOT WE hope you wil not deny but the Apostle S. Paul was one principal pillar of the Church of Rome vvho there shed his bloud He vvrote an Epistle to that Church vvhen the faith thereof was most renowmed throughout the world He vvrote at large comprehending therein as * Theodor. in praefat epist Pat. li. Theodoret saith doctrine of al sortes or al kinde of doctrine Et accuratam copiosamue dogmatum pertractationem An exact and plentiful handling of al points thereof Now in al that Epistle what doth he say either for you or against vs nay what doth he not say for vs against you he condemneth the Rom. 1. v. 23. changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the Image of a corruptible man and worshipping the creature in steede of the creatour It is for vs against you for you by your schoole-trickes doubt not to teach men by the Image of a man to worship God and by religious deuotion of praiers and offerings to worship Saints and Saints Images
his spiritual Pastour would of himselfe doe any such lowly seruice as to hold the basin c. that is not to be imputed to him that suffereth it against his wil as a marke of pride To say that any Emperour or King contrary to his wil was enforced to doe it is a very fitten as euery child may perceiue for who either would or could force so mighty a Monarke to so base a seruice vnlesse he himselfe desired it As for that oath of fidelity vvhich the Emperour maketh to the Popes Holinesse I finde it not either in the 69. or 96. Distinction but in the 63 and it is only that the Emperour shal not doe any harme vnto the Popes temporal state in Italy and if he chance to come to Rome that be then shal carry to him and the Church of Rome such respect as is meete I vvould gladly be informed what alleageance may be picked out of this and whether it be not expedient the Emperor being to be confirmed by the Pope that he should take such an oath of him for his owne safety The next text cited out of the Clementine De appellatione is a meere fiction Can. Pastor for there is no such chapter nor matter That Priests be spiritual Fathers and Masters in matters of religion to Kinges and Princes vvho can doubt vnlesse they vvould haue Kinges neither baptized nor instructed in Christian religion by Priests And let the Protestants paint it out al they can a monstrous thing it must needes appeare vnto al men of vpright judgement and the Christian world to be there turned topsy and turuy where children shal take vpon them to rule their fathers and schollers to teach their masters Thus much in answere vnto al that is objected out of S. Leo to vvhich I wil joine that vvhich M. Abbot in another place pleadeth for the same matter out of the example of Constantine the great because it doth principally appertaine thereunto I hauing in my Epistle to his Majesty said that he being at the Councel of Nice would not sit downe before the Bishops beckned to him so to doe and that he there did professe that it did not belong to him to judge of Bishops but vvas rather to be judged of them M. Abbot answereth cleane contrary to the Emperours open confession that he was judge ouer the same Bishops Page 191. Whether wil you beleeue sooner either the Emperour speaking for himself or M. Abbot speaking he knowes not vvhat of his secret thoughts and intentions specially when that which I affirmed of the Emperour hath plaine testimony out of the best approued Authors nearest to that time and M. Abbots proofes to the contrary doe consist meerely vpon his owne surmises and collections Ruffi lib. 1. hist cap. 2. Socrat. lib. 1. hist cap. 5. Ruffinus and Socrates I then cited who in expresse tearmes deliuered so much as I said to whom I adde for further cōfirmation first the irrefragable record of the most famous Doctors that were present at the same Councel Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spaine the Popes principal Legate in that Councel of Nice affirmeth as is afore rehearsed that one may worthily cal that Emperour the abhomination of desolation fore-told by Daniël who presumeth to make himselfe Prince of Bishops and President ouer Ecclesiastical causes vvhich he would not haue done if he had beene perswaded that the Emperour Constantine vvhom he tooke to be a most vertuous Prince had beene judge ouer Bishops their spiritual causes in that very Councel where he vvas there also present Secondly Athanasius who was a principal agent in the same Councel auoucheth that it cannot be called a Synode and Councel Apolog. 2. Where not a Bishop but some temporal Magistrate is President He then tooke not Constantine for President of the Nicene Councel which he esteemed so highly off and vvas indeede the patterne of al other Councels Thirdly S. Ambrose vvho liued shortly after in formal tearmes doth say that Constantine the great was not judge in the Councel of Nice but left the judgement free to Bishops And writing vnto the Emperour Valentinian addeth When haue you heard most gratious Emperour Ambros l. 5. Epist 32. that lay men did judge ouer Bishops in cases of faith surely if your Majesty please to pervse the course of holy Scriptures or of former times you shal find none that deny but in matters of faith in matters I say of faith Bishops were wont to judge ouer Emperours not Emperours ouer Bishops S. Gregory the great in expresse wordes vvitnesseth L. 4. epist 31. That the Emperour Constantine durst not judge Bishops though they themselues wished and desired it By the record therefore of these most ancient holy and learned Prelates neither Constantine the great nor any other Catholike Emperour was or could be judge in Ecclesiastical affaires ouer Bishops vvhence it followeth most perspicuously that Constantines owne wordes confessing that it did not belong to him to judge Bishops and their causes are to be taken plainly as they signifie and vvere not spoken by him as M. Abbot speaking by ghesse affirmeth of modesty only as though he meant himselfe to be their judge in al causes aswel Ecclesiastical as Temporal But let vs heare what moued M. Abbot to hold that strange opinion so contrary to the Emperours owne confession and the declaration of the worthiest men of that age His first conjecture is that though Constantine sate not downe vntil the Bishops beckned on him yet he sate in the highest place on a seate of gold vvhich if it were true Euseb de vita Constant lib. 3. cap. 10. as it is false yet vvould it not proue Constantine to be the President or Iudge of that assembly For as Theodoret doth expresly note the place that he there had vvas by permission of the Bishops at his sute and not properly belonging to him these be his vvordes Then the Emperour sate downe Theodor. l. 1. histor cap. 7. in a little chaire set in the middest istud enim sibi permitti ab Episcopis postulauerat for he had requested the Bishops to permit him so to doe It being then a place by permission of the Bishops it rather argueth that he acknowledged the Bishops of vvhom he requested that place to haue beene the Presidents and commanders there Secondly the Tripartite Hystorie doth manifestly declare that Constantine sate below the Bishops Lib. 2. Hyst Tripar ca. 5. these be the wordes taken out of Zozomenus The Emperour Constantine entred into the Councel house after al the Bishops and had his seate beneath them al neither would he sit downe before the Bishops commanded him Theodor. l. 1. Histor cap. 7. And the wordes of Theodoret may also import as much He sate in a little seate placed in the middest amongst them And falsly or craftily doth M. Abbot report out of Eusebius That he sate in the highest place for Eusebius saith not so but that
haue beene various in the transforming of his countenance In Germany beleeuing one thing in Heluetia another at Geneua turning the third way in Holland vvandering the fourth How many countries they infect with their new and prophane Gospel so many diuers professions of faith and distinct formes of Church gouernement they haue These changlinges that are so farre degenerated from their predecessors piety and doe disagree so much one with another Yea that doe in the same country often chop and change their owne religion are of al constant Catholikes to be auoided as vnstable and wauering soules caried about with euery blast of new doctrine But concerning dutiful obedience vnto the Prince vvho is Gods Lieutenant general in temporal causes Catholikes if they be compared to Protestants wil be found an hundred times more loyal and constant vvhich point because I haue touched in my answere vnto M. Abbots Epistle in the beginning of this booke I neede not here againe handle it at large And although some men of our religion haue now and then as fraile and sinneful creatures forgotten their duty both to God and their King yet they haue beene so few and that so seldome in comparison of the Protestants that for one of ours more then a thousand of theirs haue within this hundred yeares failed therein though we be in number a thousand of our religion for one of theirs if you take al Christendome ouer And albeit the state seeme now to be settled against the religion of our fore-fathers and not vnlike so to continue vntil it shal please God of his infinite mercies to alter and amend it vvhich notwithstanding as al the faithful know may be very shortly because his diuine power is infinite and no man able to resist his vvil yet we shal be by the assistance of Gods good grace so farre off from biting our tongues or the lip either thereat as M. Abbot fondly imagineth that vve wil rather pray to God to open our lips and to loose our tongues to magnifie his holy name that he hath giuen vs that true Christian happinesse and honour not only Phillip 1. vers 28. to beleeue a-right in Christ IESVS in these daies of infidelity but also to suffer disgrace and to sustaine persecution for the constant profession of his holy name and only true Catholike Apostolike Roman faith They who make profession of religion to please the Princes of the earth to heape vp honours and to rake riches togither haue great cause of griefe when they finde themselues therefore by the present state discountenanced impouerished and vtterly rejected But others vvho know our blessed Sauiour as al Christians ought to doe and the true honour vertue and riches of his Crosse doe more regard of his loue yea of one good looke of his then of al earthly Kinges countenances fauours and preferments And doe make a higher estimate of bearing his Crosse after him and of suffering persecution for his glorious name sake then of al vvorldly ease honours and commodities Imitating therein that generous and most noble minded Moyses Hebr. 11. vers 25. Who chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God then to haue the pleasures of temporal sinne esteeming the reproach for Christ greater riches then the treasures of the Aegiptians It doth not therefore so much trouble vs to behold the state settled against the Catholike religion for our owne temporal interest who haue thereby so manifold occasions to mortifie our euil passions to flie the temptations of the wicked world and to endeare our selues vnto our most louing redeemer But very great sorow and continual sadnesse of hart haue we to consider that Christian religion first planted in our country and euer since vntil our fathers daies most constantly continued is now banished thence and with it al honesty of life al good and charitable dealing with our neighbour is vtterly decaied and banished out of the City and Country And in place thereof swearing and forswearing drunkennesse dishonesty and al manner of deceit and knauery openly practised countenanced and without blushing professed That the goodly faire and stately Churches built by our Catholike Ancestors for Catholike assemblies at the blessed sacrifice of the Masse and for the due administration of the holy Sacraments and true preaching of Gods word be now prophaned and turned to places of dishonouring of our soueraigne Creatour and of seducing his poore creatures That the famous Vniuersities and other Schooles founded for instruction principally of Catholike doctrine and deuotion be now made shops of new errours loose manners and impiety Vpon these and such like spiritual considerations finding our poore country depriued in manner of al Gods blessings and our deare country-men made slaues of the Deuil and fuel for the flames of hel fire vve Catholikes are exceeding pensiue yet doe vve not therefore fare like madde men nor gnaw our tongues for anger as M. Abbot scornefully vvriteth but doe in bitternesse of soule most earnestly pray vnto the Father of mercies in vvhose handes are the harts of al Kinges to inspire our dread soueraigne King IAMES and the Lordes of his most honourable Councel vvith the true knowledge of his sacred vvil and word and to kindle in them so feruent a zeale of the Catholike Roman faith as that they may imploy those very rare and singular gifts of nature arte and experience which God hath plentifully powred vpon them towardes the reclaiming of our country from the new prophane heresies and most wicked conuersation of these miserable times vnto our Ancestours sound faith sincere honesty and most charitable and vpright dealing This chiefly is the heape of our heauinesse this is al the harme vve wish them this is al the treason that can be justly laid to our charge That vvith the aboundance of such honour and prosperity as this vale of misery affordeth them they might also be heires of eternal happinesse glory and felicity And albeit for this inestimable heauenly blisse vvhich we most hartily desire vnto our natiue soile and best beloued country we be stiled a thousand times traitours and euery way vsed most vnkindly yet we shal not surceasse by Gods grace to pray for them continually vvho doe day and night persecute vs yea ouer and besides be ready also by the assistance of the same his grace not only to bestow our best and most seruiceable daies to doe them good but also the dearest bloud in our bodies if it shal please our blessed Sauiour so to dispose of vs. And is it likely that men thus by the grace of God affected should cry out as M. Abbot malitiously surmiseth O fallaces spes O deceitful hopes doth he not here rather notably discouer the basenesse and corruption of his owne mind as exceeding far dissenting from the right temper and disposition of a sound and noble Christian who should be nothing daunted for seing the worldly state settled against him because our great Master Christ hath assured vs of that